San Lazzaro degli Armeni

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San Lazzaro degli Armeni (Armenian: " Սուրբ Ղազարօս Կղզի " ) is a small island in the lagoon of Venice.

It lies just west of the Lido, and houses a monastery, which has made the mother house of the Mechitaristenordens the island one of the world's most important centers of Armenian culture.

History

Originally, the island served as a hospital for lepers. As the disease had been pushed back end of the 15th century, the Order of the Dominicans came to the island and remained there about a hundred years. After two centuries in which the island was uninhabited, settled there in 1717 by some Armenian monks. Mekhitar of Sebaste and 17 other monks founded a monastery there and expanded the island in the northwest to its present size of approximately three acres. The 2001 census has 22 permanent residents after on the island, all in the same capital.

The inclusion of the Armenian monks bore rich fruit in the cultural life of the city of Venice. The monastery has a large library (about 200,000 volumes ) with an important collection of Oriental, especially Armenian manuscripts ( about 4,000 volumes).

Lord Byron and Carl Friedrich Neumann learned there the Armenian language, some memorabilia point to Byron's stay.

An acoustic impression of the Church brings recordings of the flutist James Newton.