Travel Guide San Lazzaro Degli Armeni

This island, a leprosarium from the 12th to the 17th century, was founded by Armenians driven out by the Turks. It is maintained today by the Confraternity of the Armenian mekhitarist fathers. There is a beautiful rose garden. In 1717, Venice gave permission to a priest who had fled Armenia, Manug di Pietro Mechitar of Sebaste, to found a monastic community there and to ensure the influence of Armenian culture in Italy and beyond. Thus, Armenians, mainly merchants and bankers, built a church and a convent. The monks will show you their small collection of paintings, including precious miniatures, and the mummy of the Egyptian prince Nehmeket (1000 B.C.) swaddled in small colored pearls. You can visit their large library, with 50,000 volumes, including priceless illuminated manuscripts, and their printing press, which produces works in 36 languages and ancient engravings. A room in the convent is dedicated to Lord Byron, with a beautiful portrait and many of his objects. He indeed loved the island. It was here, under the aegis of an Armenian father, that he had undertaken the study of oriental languages. In the garden, the fathers will show you the olive trees in whose shade Byron and Proust meditated and worked. A specialty of the island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni is the petal jam of the roses grown here.