Monastero di San Lazzaro degli Armeni

San Lazzaro degli Armeni is a monastery island in the Venetian lagoon, home to the Armenian Catholic Mechitarist congregation since the Republic of Venice granted it to Abbot Mechitar and his followers in 1717. The monastery preserves an extensive library, a museum of Armenian and Oriental art, a historic printing press and gardens.

Why it matters

The Armenian monks arrived after being driven from their earlier houses in the Peloponnese. At San Lazzaro they built a centre of Armenian learning and publishing. The library holds about 170,000 volumes, including some 4,500 Armenian manuscripts. The monastery’s museum was assembled from gifts sent from across the Armenian world.

What to notice

The museum includes a plaster model by Antonio Canova connected with Napoleon’s son, a ceiling painting by Giambattista Tiepolo depicting an allegory of Justice, and an Egyptian mummy and sarcophagus. The printing press reflects the monastery’s long role in publishing Armenian texts. The monks maintain rose gardens, and rose petals are used to make a traditional jam. A plaque commemorates Lord Byron’s study of Armenian at the monastery in 1816; he helped finance an Armenian grammar and dictionary.

Context and history

The island takes its name from San Lazzaro, patron of lepers, and housed a leper hospital from the twelfth century. It later sheltered Dominican monks expelled from Crete. The 1717 grant gave Mechitar’s community a permanent home, where the monastery, church, library and printing press developed. Byron’s stay in 1816–17 brought the island into Romantic literary history, while the monastery continues as the parent house of the Mechitarist congregation.