The vaporetto sign in Armenian – the only one in a foreign language in Venice – is confirmation you’re heading somewhere special.
Once a leper colony, the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni was gifted to an order of Armenian Catholic monks fleeing Ottoman persecution in 1717 and remains their home today. As such, it’s a rare survivor from the Venetian Republic’s multicultural heyday.
Tours & Treasures
Lying close to the Lido, San Lazzaro’s atmospheric Mechitarist Monastery is a fascinating repository of Armenian history, art and culture – and much more besides. Access is by tour only, conducted by multilingual monks who amply demonstrate the institution’s reputation for scholarship. In the 18th century, the monks set up a polyglot printing press and translated many scientific and literary works into and out of Armenian, publishing 3000 books in a variety of languages.
Tours pass through the cloister, refectory, library, museum and glittering church, taking in a ceiling fresco by Tiepolo and a headless Roman statue along the way. In 2019, a doctorate student on a tour spotted a dagger on display that proved to be 5000 years old.
The Life of Byron
An Egyptian mummy and a pair of 15th-century Indian thrones are the quirky main features of the room dedicated to the memory of Lord Byron, who spent six months here in 1816 helping the monks to prepare an English–Armenian dictionary. True to Byron's eccentric nature, he was often spotted swimming from the island to the Grand Canal.
