Isola San Lazzaro degli Armeni, Venice

San Lazzaro degli Armeni is an island entirely occupied by a monastery, and it has belonged to Armenian Catholic monks since 1717. The community turned this former leper colony into a centre of Armenian learning, with printing, scholarship, and a library holding about 170,000 volumes, including 4,500 manuscripts. The collections here range far beyond Armenian material.

In the room associated with Lord Byron, who came here in 1816 and 1817 to study Armenian, you can encounter an Egyptian mummy sent by an Armenian-born Egyptian minister in 1825. It belonged to a priest of Amun’s temple at Karnak and dates to the fifth century BC; its body contains cedar sawdust, matching a detail described by Herodotus. Nearby are Etruscan vessels, Chinese antiques, an Indian throne decorated with ivory, and a Buddhist ritual text written on papyrus.

The monks also kept their monastery through Napoleon’s suppression of religious orders in 1810. The island has expanded through reclaimed land to nearly four times its earlier area. As you look at the water-facing buildings and enclosed garden, remember that this small island is also one of the world’s early centres of Armenian culture.