San Lazzaro degli Armeni

San Lazzaro degli Armeni is a small island in the Venitian Lagoon, northern Italy. It lies to the southest of Venice and immediately west of the Lido.

A leper colony during the Middle Ages, since 1717 the island has been home to the Armenian Catholic Monastery of San Lazzaro. It is the headquarters of the Mechitarist Order and, as such, one of the world's prominent centers of Armenian culture and Armenian studies.
 
From 1789 until the early 20th century it was a major center of Armenian printing. The island is one of the best known historc sites of American diaspora. The monastery has a large collection of books, journals, artifacts and the third largest collection of Armenian manuscripts.