San Lazzaro Travel Guide

I'd read somewher that the grounds of the monastery had lovely white peacocks - well we didn't see any as the walkway around the island where cordoned off :-S The only other thing of not was this strange art exhibit by the Danish–Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson - installed here as part of the 51st Biennial art festival. The exhibit consists of a tent like pavilion, with views onto the water and ramps leading into a blackened room with a thin beam of light at eye level acting as a horizon line, a full 360° circumferentially, its intensity and color slowly shifting. Tried some pics but they didn't turn out so well in such a dark eerie space.
I'm still a bit in the dark about it all - fraid I'm not really into this art thing at times....but if you are intrigued still then look at he website link given below.

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The tour starsts in the restored church - gaily decorated with bright moasics of various saints - and the friendly amiable priest relates the history in the various languages - I must admit I drifted off at this point but did enjoy just sitting in the cool, admiring the artwork (pics 1 and 2) and escaping the heat for a while. The tour then moves on to the long dinning room to see a picture of the last supper (pic 3), before moving onto the library and museum which the Armenians take great pride in.

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This square shaped island was a former leper colony up until the 16th century - indeed its name comes from St. Lazarus, the patron saint of lepers. . It was "gifted" to an Armenian monk, the Venerable Mekhitar in 1717 who had fleed to Venice in 1715 from his Turkish persecuters. Mekitar and his small band of monks founded a religious community here and also set up a printing press which was in operation until 1994. They published works in 36 languauges!

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I found the librarry and museum more interesting - quite a few artifacts to see as S. Lazzaro houses a 150,000-volume library (not unkike ones we had seen in Prague), as well as a museum with over 4,000 Armenian manuscripts and many Arab, Indian and Egyptian artifacts collected by the monks or received as gifts. They take pleasure in showing their treasures to their visitors - quite touching really. The priests favourute exhibit was the mummy of an old man in an egyptian sarchophagus but ironically the old man was younger than the protective casing of his sarcophagus!

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The monks of the St. Lazzaro monastery have welcomed visitors for more than two centuries. In 1816, Lord Byron visited San Lazzaro twice a week for six months, to study the Armenian language and to enjoy the monks' comfortable academic lifestyle. A plaque Pic 2) quotes Byron as saying, "The visitor will be convinced that there are other and better things even in this life."
The tour of the church and museum begins at 3.30pm and lasts about 75 mins - entrance fee is 6 euros per person. (pic 3) You might as well take the tour otherwise there is nothing else to see!
You are greeted by a friendly priest who establishes what languages the visitors speak or understand before leading you through the peaceful closisters to the church.