page_title: Elisa Brătianu
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Elisa Brătianu / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Română: Palatul Știrbei din Buftea This is a photo of a historic monument in județul Ilfov, classified with number IF-II-m-A-15257.01
context_page_description: Elisa Brătianu was a Romanian aristocrat, political figure and participant in the Inter-Allied Women's Conference of 1919. An avid gardener, she designed the gardens at the Albatross Villa in Buzău and discussed plans for gardens in Bucharest with the town gardener. Concerned about the loss of traditional Romanian culture, she developed schools to keep stitchery traditions alive and published books of patterns. When her husband, long-serving prime minister Ion I.C. Brătianu died, she spearheaded a foundation to collect his archives and create a library to publish his most important works.
context_section_description: Princess Elisa I. Știrbei was born on 2 May 1870 at Ştirbei Palace, in Buftea, located in the Principality of Romania of the Ottoman Empire to Maria (née Ghika-Comănești) and Prince Alexandru B. Știrbei. Her mother was originally from Comănești in the Principality of Moldavia, while her father's family were from Muntenia in the Principality of Wallachia. As the union of the two principalities had occurred only eleven years prior to Știrbei's birth, her mother worked to ensure that the children thought of themselves as Romanians. Her mother's dowry included the winery and estate in Dărmăneşti, which would serve as the Știrbei family's summer home. Her father was an industrialist who took a specific interest in preserving and expanding the architectural holdings of his family and was involved in politics. Her grandfather, Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei was a Prince of Wallachia. Having been born into the Bibescu family and adopted by his uncle the heirless Barbu C. Ştirbey, last of the ancient Oltenian boyars, Barbu D. Știrbei and his brother Prince Gheorghe Bibescu were both active in Wallachian politics.
  The oldest of eight children, Elisa's siblings were Elena (1871–1897), Barbu A. (1872–1946), Zoe (1874–1896), Maria (1876–1963) Adina (1877–1967), Gheorghe (1883–1917) and Ioana (1885–1914). The children were tutored at home in the Ştirbei Palace by a series of tutors, who included Ioan Slavici. Slavici was influential upon Știrbei's life, introducing her to the poet Mihai Eminescu, beginning her love of literature. She studied language and became fluent in English, French, German, and Romanian. She remembered her childhood as idyllic spending time at the family palaces in Bucharest, Buftea and Dărmăneşti, until her mother's death, which coincided with the birth of her youngest sister, Ioana.
caption: Ştirbei Palace, Buftea 2012
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