Cristiana Brandolini d'Adda, the last Agnelli of her generation, dies at 99.
The Lawyer's favorite sister and an example of elegance, she was considered one of the international queens of the jet set.An archive image from January 25, 2003, shows the Agnelli sisters: (from left) Susanna, Cristiana, Clara, and Maria Sole. (ANSA / MARCELLINO RADOGNA)
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Of the family who “dressed like sailors,” from the famous autobiographical novel by her sister Susanna, she was the only one still alive.
Cristiana Brandolini d'Adda, the last member of her Agnelli generation, died at the age of 99 in her home in Venice, surrounded by her loved ones: her sisters Clara, Susanna, and Maria Sole—who passed away in December 2025—and her brothers Gianni, the Lawyer, Giorgio, and Umberto. Born in Turin on February 16, 1927, to Edoardo Agnelli and Virginia Bourbon del Monte di San Faustino, granddaughter of Giovanni Agnelli, founder of Fiat, she was the fifth of seven children.
Wife of Count Brando Brandolini d'Adda, whom she married in 1947 in the Basilica of San Bartolomeo on Tiber Island in Rome, she had three sons: Tiberto, Leonello, Nuno, and Brandino. She chose to stay away from the spotlight, being more reserved and shy in public, but certainly no less worldly.
She was considered one of the international queens of the jet set. She divided her life between Venice, her Vistorta estate in Friuli, with its villa and English-style park redesigned by Russell Page, and Paris, where she lived on the Left Bank from 1968. She was particularly close to her brother Gianni, sharing their taste and moderation.
Renowned for her elegance, she was portrayed by Cecil Beaton and Horst P. Horst, among others, and admired for her taste in fashion and interiors. A free spirit and lover of the arts, she supported Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet's Fondation de la Vocation and Robert Wilson's Watermill Center.
(Unioneonline)