Dora d'Istria

Dora d`Istria, real name Elena Gjika, was born in Romania in 1828 and died in Florence in 1888. This true polyglot was a descendant of the Albanian Gjika family, who left Albania in the 17th century and settled in Wallachia and Romania, producing major political figures in Romania, Moldavia, and elsewhere. She soon became one of the most prominent European intellectuals of her era. She stood out especially for her literary publications, as well as her historical and folklore studies, and above all as a tireless fighter for the national and social causes of peoples, including the Albanian question under the Ottoman Empire. Her political and literary contribution was extraordinary.