During the years 1669-1695, the Armenian merchants from New Julfa (Isfahan, Persia) gave life to a colony which played an important and underestimated role in the growth of trade exchanges between Europe and Asia. The aim of this paper is to explore the history of this Oriental and Christian merchant group in a European city and to assess its economic, social and cultural outcomes. In particular it analyzes the strategies implemented by these traders to accommodate their belonging to an intercontinental community network and their need to integrate into this distinctive host society. The study of the sudden disappearance of this group at the end of the 17th century allows us also to understand better the features of spatial redeployments in merchant networks during periods of reconfiguration in international trade circuits and routes.