Henri Louis Auguste Ricard de Montferrand (born in French as Henri Louis Auguste Ricard de Montferrand), also known in Russia as August Augustovich Monferran and August (Augustin) Antonovich Monferran, was born on January 23, 1786, in Chaillot near Paris, and died on June 28, 1858, in Saint Petersburg. He was a French and Russian architect and engineer. He received his education at the Royal Special School of Architecture in Paris. He honed his professional skills in the workshops of architects Percier and Fontaine. From 1814 to 1816, he worked under the direction of the General Inspector of Paris for construction and architecture, Molino; he participated in the construction of the La Madeleine church in Paris (project by architect Vignon). During Emperor Alexander I’s stay in Paris in 1814, he presented him with an album of his projects and drawings and received an invitation to come to Russia, where he arrived in 1816. At that time, he was appointed court architect. From 1817 to 1826, he was head of the Drawing Committee for Building and Hydraulic Works, the main architectural authority at that time. Since 1826, he was a member of the Committee for the review of the project and works on the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Montferran’s work lies on the border of two architectural eras: being the leading architect of late classicism, he was one of the first to turn to eclecticism. He developed the project for the Empire-style building of the Manege (exercising hall, 1817) in Moscow, executed for Betancourt. From 1817 to 1822, he created an ensemble of administrative buildings, shopping rows, and a cathedral for the fair in Nizhny Novgorod; all buildings were designed in the traditions of classicism, except for the “Chinese Rows,” where Eastern motifs were used. Auguste Montferran (together with engineer Betancourt) built the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Old Fair in Nizhny Novgorod (1818–22). All of Montferran’s most significant projects were realized in Saint Petersburg. In his first building (the house of Lobanov-Rostovsky, 1817–20), Montferran showed himself as a talented urban planner, fitting the strict classical facades of the building into a complex development site shaped like a triangle. The first features of stylization “in Gothic style” and Eastern motifs appeared in 1823 in the project of pavilions for the Ekateringof Park near Petersburg (1820s; unfortunately, they have not survived). Later, elements of historical styles and free planning of volumes were skillfully applied by Montferran in projects of private houses (Demidov’s and Princess Gagarina’s on Bolshaya Morskaya Street). The perfectly proportioned and silhouetted Alexander Column completed the ensemble of Palace Square; the installation of the huge granite monolith of the column became possible thanks to calculations prepared by Montferran and unique technical devices for that time. Montferran’s most significant work is the St. Isaac’s Cathedral, where he applied the latest technologies, including the use of metal structures alongside traditional stone and brick masonry. While working on the project, Montferran relied on the best examples of the past: in 1842, he traveled through Western Europe to study the structures of dome buildings of the largest cathedrals. As a result, he created an original dome consisting of three shells, assembled entirely from cast-iron elements for the first time. Montferran was also a master of interior decoration, including work in the Winter Palace (decor of the Rotunda, Peter and Field Marshal’s ceremonial halls; he remodeled the layout and decoration of the private chambers of Empresses Maria Feodorovna and Alexandra Feodorovna). He was an honorary free associate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, as well as an honorary member of the Academy of St. Luke in Rome, the Academy of Arts in Florence, and the Royal Institute of British Architects in London.

Jermaine