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For over three hundred years the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni has been a slice of Armenia in the Venice lagoon
Here there is a monastery which houses a small community of Mekhitarist monks, and is one of the first centres in the world of Armenian culture.
Originally home to the Benedictines of Sant’Ilario, from the 12th century forward the island was chosen as a place of quarantine for lepers and used as a lazaret, from which the name San Lazzaro derives. After a period of abandonment, in 1717 the island was donated by the Serenissima to Mekhitar from Armenia, founder of the Mekhitarist order, fleeing from Turkish persecution and taking refuge in Venice with his fraternity.
The monks devoted themselves to study, turning the island into a centre of culture and science, intended to keep the language, literature and traditions of the Armenian people alive
The monastery is open for visits every day, booking via email visite@mechitar.org or by phone +39 0415260104
You can get there by taking the vaporetto Line 20 from San Marco-San Zaccaria stop
The hidden gem of the island is the library, which preserves thousands of ancient volumes and over four thousand manuscripts and illuminated codes, considered one of the world’s most important collections of Armenian manuscripts
Inside the monastery there is also, in addition to the printing house of the late eighteenth century, an art gallery with works by Armenian painters and a museum where are collected archaeological finds of Armenian, Greek, Egyptian and Indian origin, including the Egyptian mummy of Nemen Khet Amen, considered one of the best preserved in the world, complete with sarcophagus.
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