Olga Cantacuzène-Altieri

Princess Olga Cantacuzène-Altieri (; 1843–1929) was a Russian-Italian aristocrat and novelist who wrote in French.

Life Born into the House of Cantacuzène, Princess Olga Alexandrovna Cantacuzène was the daughter of Prince Alexander Nikolaevich Cantacuzène, a retired captain, was born on 25 November 1843 in Odessa, and his wife, Marie Ivanovna, née Baroness Renault, the daughter of an honorary citizen of Odessa. Olga's paternal grandfather, Major-general Prince Nikolai Rodionovich Cantacuzène, died two years before the birth of his granddaughter. The family lived in Odessa, in the house of the Cantacuzènes.

In 1857, when Olga was fourteen years old, her father died and a year later her mother went to travel around Europe. In Paris, she became close friends with the mistress of the fashion salon, Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, daughter of Napoleon's younger brother, Jérôme. There, in 1862, she met Count Nieuwerkerke, who fell in love with Olga. In 1872, the Count bought a 16th-century villa in Italy, where he settled himself, and invited the entire Cantacuzène family there.

Count Nieuwerkerke found a worthy groom for Olga, and in 1876 she married a representative of an ancient Italian House of Altieri, Prince Lorenzo Maria Guiseppe Altieri-Oriolo (1829–1899).