Aurora Pavlovna Demidova

Aurora Pavlovna Demidova, Princess of San Donato (2/3 November 1873 in Kiev – 28 June (OS: 16 June) 1904 in Turin) was a Russian noblewoman and by birth a member of the House of Demidov.

Aurora Pavlovna Demidova
Born	2/3 November 1873 Kiev, Russian Empire (now Ukraine)
Died	June 28, 1904(1904-06-28) (aged 30) Turin, Kingdom of Italy
Burial	Russian Cemetery of Nice, France
Spouse	Prince Arsen of Yugoslavia ​ ​ (m. 1892; div. 1896)​ Count Nicola Giovanni di Noghera ​ ​ (m. 1897)​
Issue	Prince Paul of Yugoslavia Nikolai Karageorgevich Sergei Karageorgevich Helena Aurora di Noghera Alberto di Noghera Giovanni di Noghera Amedeo di Noghera
House	Demidov (by birth) Karadjordjevic (by marriage) di Noghera (by marriage)
Father	Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, 2nd Prince of San Donato
Mother	Princess Elena Petrovna Trubetskaya

Princess Aurora with her infant son, Paul, who would become the Regent of Yugoslavia

Early life and ancestry

Aurora was born as the eldest daughter of Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, 2nd Prince of San Donato, and his second wife, Princess Elena Petrovna Trubetskoy (1853–1917). Her father was the son of the Finnish-Swede philanthropist Aurora Stjernvall von Waleen and her first husband, Pavel Nikolaievich Demidov. Her mother was a daughter of Prince Peter Nikitich Trubetskoy (1826–1880) and Princess Elizabeth Belosselsky-Belozersky, maid of honor of the Duchess of Edinburgh.

From about the age of nine, Aurora and her younger siblings were raised with little supervision at the Villa Demidoff in the Tuscan countryside. Family archives describe her as a free-spirited child who encouraged local village youths to visit the estate, even if they had to climb the fence to do so. Her mother later remarked that Aurora was ‘very independent’ and unconcerned with how others perceived her.^[1]

First marriage

She married Prince Arsen Karadjordjević, a member of the House of Karadjordjevic and the youngest son of Alexander Karađorđević, Prince of Serbia and his wife, Princess Persida, in Helsingfors—where her famous grandmother, Aurora Karamzin, lived—at Uspenski Cathedral on 1 May 1892.

It was an incident at a ball that led to an encounter, which would eventually result in his marriage to one of the most beautiful and sought-after women of her time. During the event, both Arsen and his friend Gustaf Mannerheim simultaneously chose Aurora as their partner for mazurka, sparking a heated quarrel between the two friends.^[2] She was fourteen years younger than Arsen, and their union came as a genuine surprise to the high society of Saint Petersburg. How the couple specifically decided to marry remains unknown, but contemporary gossip suggested that Arsen’s motives were not purely romantic; some claimed he also sought her dowry to help settle debts incurred due to his consant gambling and extravagant lifestyle.

According to those who knew them, Arsen was entirely unsuited to the role of husband, while Aurora was certainly ill-prepared for motherhood. They were a deeply unhappy couple, which contributed to the brevity of their marriage. While still young, Arsen developed a tendency toward frivolous relationships and a craving for military adventure, and as an Army officer he spent much of his time away from home not only on military manoeuvres but also at the gaming tables of Paris.

Their only son was Prince Paul of Yugoslavia who became Regent of Yugoslavia from 9 October 1934 to 27 March 1941. The couple first separated in 1894 and later divorced on 26 December 1896, due to Aurora’s earlier liaison with the young Count Ernst Andreas von Manteuffel (1873–1953), which resulted in the birth of twin sons, Nikolai (1895–1933) and Sergei (1895–1912), whom Arsen refused to acknowledge as his own and therefore members of the Karađorđević dynasty.^[3][4]

Princes Arsen, nonetheless, agreed to be named the ‘guilty’ party in the divorce, formally admitting to abandonment so that she could marry the child’s father. He stipulated, however, that their son, Prince Paul, be sent away and not raised with her subsequent children. In the end, she did not marry the children’s father, as he had abandoned her before she even knew she was pregnant.

Before the divorce papers were finalized, one-year-old Paul was taken by his nanny to Nice, leaving the Empire of Russia, which he would never return to. After the divorce, Aurora no longer harbored illusions about her or Arsen’s ability to raise the child, and her main concern became deciding who would take care of an infant Paul, whom no one wanted—least of all his own parents.

Aurora initially asked her half-brother, Elim Pavlovich Demidov, 3rd Prince of San Donato, to adopt Paul, but as a career diplomat, he was unable to take on the responsibility and had to decline the offer. Ultimately, in 1895, Paul's legal guardian became his paternal uncle, who would later become King Peter I of Serbia, and who was living in Geneva at the time. Prince Paul later recalled that during his uncle Peter’s lifetime, he spent more time with him than with his own children, Helen, George and Alexander, who themselves were later educated in Russia and were away from home.

From the time of his adoption, little Prince Paul saw his mother only twice more in his life. The first occasion was when he was six years old: during a cruise on Lake Geneva, a lady on the deck suddenly took him into her arms and held him there, which seemed to him to last an eternity. She then introduced him to her friends as her son. The second and final time was when he was eight. One winter evening, he was taken to a railway station and told to wait. When the train arrived, the same lady from the boat stepped out, embraced the confused child tightly, and then, tearfully, boarded the train that disappeared into the night—this being the last time Paul saw his mother. Later in life, Prince Paul was legally adopted by Aurora’s childless younger sister, Princess Moina (Maria) Demidov (1877-1955), and her husband, Prince Semyon Abamelek-Lazarev, thereby inheriting the historic Villa di Pratolino after their deaths.^[5]

Second marriage

Entrance gates of Villa Bria, the villa of Aurora, Contessa Palatina di Noghera marking the start of the approach to the residence.

Aurora Pavlovna married again on 4 November 1897 in Genoa, to Nicola, Count Palatine di Noghera, a member of the Italian nobility of Lombard origin whose family had been granted the title in 1594. In 1896, she acquired the beautiful Villa Bria in Bussoleno, near Turin, where she lived with her second husband and spent her time between Florence, Cannes, the French Riviera, and Piedmont, marking this as the happiest period of her life.^[6] Together,they had four children:

1. Alberto (1896 – 1971), born while Aurora was still legally married to Prince Arsen; he had a daughter in 1916.
2. Helena Aurora (22 May 1898 – 12 October 1967), who married Gaston Tissot.
3. Giovanni (8 March 1900)
4. Amedeo Alberto Maria (9 February 1902 – 1982)

Death

Tragically, Aurora passed away in Turin on 28 June 1904, aged 30, succumbing to an infection caused by a rose thorn puncture. She was laid to rest in the Russian Orthodox Cemetery, Nice, France.^[7]