San Lazzaro degli Armeni is a small island about twenty minutes by vaporetto from Piazza San Marco. It is home to the Monastery of the Armenian monks of the Mekhitarist Order who settled here in 1717.
The Armenian community holds an impressive cultural heritage collected and produced over the decades. With an internal printing house, a library that still preserves rare manuscripts and with a series of artistic works of enormous value donated by faithful and devotees, San Lazzaro degli Armeni is a treasure chest of inestimable surviving value, by virtue of its exceptional scientific-literary production, also to the monastic suppressions of the Napoleonic period.
Among the wonders not to be missed are the paintings by Tiepolo, a white sculpture by Canova, a singular Egyptian mummy and the colorful rose garden where the monks collect the petals of the flowers which they use to produce the fragrant vartanush, a rose-based jam.