Once upon a time, a small piece of Capri overlooking the Gulf of Naples became the stage for Roman Empire intrigues, and later, the life of socialite Mona Williams Bismarck. We’re talking about the Il Fortino complex, located in the Palazzo a Mare district of Capri. Subdivided and sold to private owners—including French actress Edwige Fenech during her romance with Luca Cordero di Montezemolo—it is now among the island’s most sought-after luxury residences.
From Bizet to Mona
The first notable guest of Il Fortino was composer George Bizet. While staying with painter Guillaume Dubufe, Bizet found inspiration within these walls to craft verses for his *Carmen*. However, the villa truly took center stage in Capri during the 1930s. A prominent figure in 1960s Capri society, Mona Travis Strader—born to a stableman and transformed into a millionaire through her marriages—chose the villa, which now bears her name, as her retreat during her third marriage.
Love & Divorces
Mona Travis Strader was born in 1897 in Louisville, Kentucky. Five husbands shaped her wealth (and perhaps her happiness). Her journey began with Henry J. Schlesinger; their divorce left her with half a million dollars and custody of their son, Robert. She then married “America’s most handsome man,” banker James Irving Bush, 14 years her senior. But it was during her third marriage, to Harrison Williams, that Villa Il Fortino entered the picture. Williams, president of a leading telecommunications company, was reputedly America’s richest man, while Mona earned a spot in the Hall of Fame of the *International Best Dressed List*. Their honeymoon? A global voyage aboard Williams’ *Warrior*, the largest and most expensive yacht of its time. Upon their return, they purchased several properties, including the Capri estate. Two years after Williams’ death, Mona married Count Albrecht von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1903–1970), an interior decorator and grandson of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The couple made Paris their primary home, splitting vacations between their Avenue de New York apartment and Il Fortino, which became the epicenter of Capri’s vibrant social scene in the 1950s.
When Style Becomes Legend
From Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis to Prince Philipp of Hesse and Maria Gabriella of Savoy, from the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to Winston Churchill and Maria Callas, Mona’s guest list read like a who’s-who of 20th-century icons. Her unforgettable soirées in the villa’s garden—surrounded by magnificent rose bushes, which she personally tended with gold scissors gifted by Onassis—became legendary. It was at Il Fortino in 1968 that Mona learned of the closure of her favorite designer Cristóbal Balenciaga’s atelier. Devastated, she reportedly stayed in her villa bedroom for three days. Her final marriage was to Umberto De Martino, her physician. Tragically, he died in a car accident just days after their wedding.
Il Fortino Today
Upon the Countess Bismarck’s death in Paris in 1983—her life having inspired Truman Capote’s character Kate McCloud in “Answered Prayers” —the Il Fortino complex was divided into various units. Now serving as private residences and luxury mini-resorts, the villa’s furnishings were auctioned by Sotheby’s. Would you like to sleep here next summer?
Credit: Cecil Beaton – Conde Nast Archive, 1956
