Page 161 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Venice & The Veneto

THE LA GOON ISLANDS  159

1980 this spartan island was 9 San Lazzaro
taken over by the Venice degli Armeni
European Centre for the Trades
and Professions of Conser- Tel 041 526 01 04. 4 No. 20.
vation, and in 1996 Venice Open for one visit daily. No. 20 leaves
International University opened San Zaccaria at 2:45pm (Nov–Apr:
its doors here. The historic 3:10pm). & 8
buildings and the large park in Lying just off the Lido (see p160),
which they are set have been San Lazzaro degli Armeni is a
extensively restored. small monastery island, recog-
nizable by the onion-shaped
8 Santa Maria cupola of its white campanile.
della Grazia The buildings are surrounded by
gardens and groves of cypress
No public access. trees. Since the 18th century it
has been an Armenian mon-
Originally called La Cavana or astery and centre of learning.
Cavanell, the island lies a short
distance from San Giorgio Early history
Maggiore (see p99). Formerly a This small island served as an
shelter for pilgrims journeying asylum in the 12th century and
to the Holy Land, it became a later became a hospital island for
monastery island in the 15th lepers, named after their patron Prince Nehmekhet’s sarcophagus
century. Its name was changed saint, Lazarus. The lepers were (c.1000 BC), San Lazzaro
when a church then transferred to
was constructed the Ospedale di where monks taught (and
to enshrine a mir- San Lazzaro dei still teach) young Armenians
aculous image Mendicanti at Santi their culture.
of the Virgin, Giovanni e Paolo
brought from (see pp120–21). In The island today
Constantinople. 1717 an Armenian Today, multilingual monks give
The religious Illuminated manuscript, monk, Manug di visitors guided tours of the
buildings, including San Lazzaro degli Armeni Pietro, known as church, the art collection, the
a Gothic church Mechitar (“the library and the museum, which
with some fine paintings, were consoler”), was forced to flee houses Armenian, Greek, Indian
secularized under Napoleon. The his homeland, the Morea, when and Egyptian artifacts. One of
island became a military zone the Turks invaded. Venetian the most famous is an Egyptian
under his rule, but the buildings rulers gave him the island of sarcophagus complete with
were destroyed in the 1848 San Lazzaro in the southern mummy, which is one of the
revolutionary uprising (see p51). lagoon as a place of shelter. best-preserved in the world.
Until the end of the 20th Here, he established a religious The most impressive exhibit is
century, the island was occupied order. The Armenians rebuilt the the printing hall where, over
by a hospital for infectious island, setting up a monastery, 200 years ago, a press produced
diseases; after this department church, library, study rooms, works in 36 languages. A
moved to the main hospital in gardens and orchards. The polyglot press is still in use,
Venice, the island was sold. island became a place of study producing postcards, maps and
prints for visitors.
Lord Byron
In 1816 the poet Byron would
often row from Venice to absorb
Armenian culture. Full of admira-
tion for the monks, he wrote
that the monastery “appears to
unite all the advantages of the
monastic institution without any
of its vices … the virtues of the
brethren … are well fitted to
strike a man of the world with
the conviction that ‘there is
another and a better’, even in
this life.” The room where he
studied, with mementoes, has
The garden and cloisters of San Lazzaro degli Armeni been carefully preserved.

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