San Lazzaro degli Armeni

It is located in the central lagoon, close to the Lido, about two kilometers from Venice.

It has an area of about three hectares. It presents a cavana on the southwest side. The original structure, characteristic of the convent located here in the center of the island, is well preserved with its typical cusp campanile and perimeter wall interrupted by columned balustrades.

The earliest records date back to 1182, when the Venetian Leone Paolini obtained the island as a gift from Abbot Uberto of Sant'Ilario.

Leone Paolini built a church there, dedicated at first to St. Leo the Pope, and a pilgrim hospice that soon became an asylum for those infected with leprosy.

The island's history became intertwined with that of the Armenian people beginning in 1717. It was in that year that the island was given in perpetuity by the Senate of the Republic to the Armenian followers of Mechitar, or Manug of Peter, known as the Comforter.

The latter, ordained a priest in his twenties, had moved to Constantinople where he practiced the arts of printing and bookbinding. Today one can admire the porticoed cloister of the 19th-century convent and the Gothic-plan church dating from the 14th century; inside are works by Franceso Maggiotto and Franceso Zugno of the Tiepolo school.

The 1739 refectory has paintings by Palma the Younger, Longetti and Gaspare Diziani.