Ghika

Ghika, Helena, Princess (1829-1888), was born at Bucharest, her father being Prince Michael Ghika. She received a classical education, and then travelled in Germany, France, and Italy, making herself acquainted with modern languages.

She wrote pieces for the theatre, and many other works, one of her chief aims, in which she was successful, being to wake up the Albanian people to a desire for freedom. Her marriage with a Russian prince, with whom she lived for a few years at St. Petersburg, was unhappy, and from 1855 she resided mostly at Florence. She wrote a good deal in reviews and magazines under the name of Dora d'lstria.