Maria Kalergis

Maria Kalergis von Nesselrode-Ereshoven (7 August 1822 Warsaw – 22 May 1874, Warsaw) was a Polish noblewoman, pianist, salon hostess and patron of the arts. Life Countess Maria von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven was daughter of a count in Russian service, Karl Friedrich Joseph von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven, and Polish noblewoman Tekla von Górska. At the age of seventeen Maria von Nesselrode married Jan Kalergis, a rich landowner of Greek Cretan noble descent, who was much older and proved to be of a jealous disposition. Although they had a daughter, Marie, born in Saint Petersburg in 1840, less than a year after their wedding they agreed to separate. Despite several attempts to overcome their aversion towards each other, they continued living separately, without divorcing, until Jan's death. He ensured Maria had a comfortable life. While the division of their assets was in dispute, she was able to tour Europe, including Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, Paris and Baden-Baden. The course of Maria's marriage was an echo of her own childhood experiences. A year after her birth, her father, Friedrich Karl von Nesselrode, a German and his wife Thekla, a Pole, had separated due to personality differences. From her sixth year, Maria had been raised in Saint Petersburg in the home of her paternal uncle, Count Karl Robert von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven, a German in the Russian court who for forty years (1816–56) was the Tsar's minister of foreign affairs and who saw to it that Maria received a thorough education. She evinced an early musical talent and for a while took lessons from Chopin, who praised her musical abilities. She was taught Polish by her mother and also spoke French, as well as German, English, Italian and Russian.