St. Petersburg is one of the best places for tourists to visit on their tour to Russia. One of the highlights of St. Petersburg is its architecture, which many people have helped St. Petersburg to reach this achievement throughout history. Among those people, many foreign artists have written their names on the streets of St. Petersburg and its suburban area. One of them is the well-known French architect, Auguste de Montferrand, who hadn’t done much in St. Petersburg but still remembered as one of the greatest architects who had worked in the city.
Even though Auguste de Montferrand had spent more than forty years in St. Petersburg, his fame in the city only rests on one particular building; however, that building is one of the essential structures in St. Petersburg in various aspect. St. Isaac’s Cathedral is one of the projects that Auguste de Montferrand had done in St. Petersburg and one of the significant works of him in the city as well. Still, since it’s one of the most famous buildings in the town, we have to put De Montferrand’s name on our most prominent French architect in St. Petersburg list.
De Montferrand was born in 1786 in outside Paris, France. Although his father was a horse trainer, he had chosen to enter the Academie d'architecture when he turned twenty to become an architect. Unfortunately for him, though he had artistic heart, he was called upon to serve in the Grand Army of Napoleon. He had served the armies in the campaign of Italy and even awarded Legion d'honneur for his service in the Battle of Hanau; however, after the defeat of Napoleon, he chose to search for an architecture job abroad. He was granted a visit with Alexander I, the emperor in Russia during the occupation of Paris, in which Alexander I approved his drawings, which resulted in his travel to Russia.
Auguste de Montferrand had entered St. Petersburg in 1816 with a letter of recommendation from Abraham-Louis Breguet, which helped him to be selected as the architect for reconstructing the St. Isaac’s Cathedral in no time. However, he had not had any experience at work. While his design for reconstruction of St. Isaac’s Cathedral was under investigation by the committee, consist of several architects, he had done a project in Nizhny Novgorod Fair with Augustin de Betancourt, in which he designed Saviour Cathedral. He also had designed the Cathedral of St. Spyridon of Trimythous inside the Admiralty building on Nevsky Prospect.
The review of the committee was released in 1818, in which Auguste de Montferrand's design for the reconstruction of St. Isaac's Cathedral received heavy criticism since other architects believed that his design was structurally unreliable. Though he admitted the flaws in his plan, he had entered the second contest for the reconstruction of the St. Isaac's Cathedral and won again, which this time, his design had approved without problem in 1825. It took more than forty years for St. Isaac's Cathedral to be completed, during which many artists had helped Auguste de Montferrand in the process. Like many other architects, De Montferrand had supervised the construction himself. Still, in the meantime, he had done several other projects in St. Petersburg as well, including rebuilding the Kazan Cathedral in 1827, which took him around ten years. He also designed the Alexander Column on the Palace Square, which was a memorial to his mentor Alexander I. However, his last work in St. Petersburg was creating the Nicholas I's monument, which places in front of his cathedral.
The construction of St. Isaac’s Cathedral lasted for more than forty years, which eventually became an omen of death in De Montferrand’s life. He had predicted his death after the completion of the St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which had happened, and he died only a month after the opening of the cathedral at the age of 72. He wished to be buried inside his famous cathedral after his death, which was not granted by the Russian Orthodox Church since he did not convert to their religion. His remains were returned to Paris in 1858, and he buried inside the Cimitiere de Montmartre.
St. Isaac’s Cathedral
St. Isaac’s Cathedral is one of the major attractions of St. Petersburg, which we at the Star Travel Group would suggest to our tourists visiting on their tour to Russia because it’s also one of the most impressive historical landmarks in St. Petersburg. While it took Auguste de Montferrand around forty years to complete the cathedral, he had designed one of the most magnificent structures of St. Petersburg, which turned to be the city’s main cathedral for years. De Montferrand had used loads of granite to design the façade of the building, which took almost ten years to source the material. He also adorned the interior of the cathedral with some of the amazingly intricate paintings, iconostasis, mosaic icons, columns, and sculptures.
During the construction of the cathedral, many artists had assisted Auguste de Montferrand in designing and decoration the cathedral, including Alexander Bryullov, Karl Bryullov, Peter Clodt, Gabriel Lame, and Emile Clapeyron. The sculptures that had been used to decorate the exterior of St. Isaac's Cathedral are still one of the major attractions of this cathedral in the tour to Russia program, and many tourists have visited the cathedral to see the beauty of this work on their Russia tour. We at the Star Travel Company also recommend our tourists who have plans to attend this cathedral visit the St. Isaac's Colonnade as well. They can see a new perspective of the city from the top of St. Isaac's Cathedral on their travel to St. Petersburg.
Alexander Column
The Alexander Column on the Palace Square in front of the Winter Palace is an impressive monument to glorious victory over the Grand Army of Napoleon and Alexander I, who had ruled Russia during the war with Napoleon. Auguste de Montferrand admired the emperor Alexander I a lot, and when he was commissioned to build a monument to his grace on Palace Square, he had designed one of the most impressive structures both as engineering and architecturally aspect. One of the fun facts about this monument is that the angel on the top of the memorial has been said to be sampled the Alexander I’s face. During the tour to St. Petersburg, this monument is one of the first things that tourists would see when they’re visiting Hermitage and Winter Palace. You will see this monument on our tour to Russia program as well.
Monument to Nicholas I
The Monument to Nicolas I was Auguste de Monferrand’s last commission in St. Petersburg before the compilation of St. Isaac’s Cathedral. The Monument to Nicholas I on St. Isaac’s Square, which is one of the three horsemen of St. Petersburg, and you can learn about them on our Monuments to Prominent Imperial Leaders, was designed in 1856. It’s one of the most majestic sculptures that have been built after one of the Russian emperors in St. Petersburg. You can visit this monument on your tour to St. Petersburg since St. Isaac’s Cathedral would be on any the Russia tour plans. This monument is the last thing that Auguste de Montferrand had designed before his death.
While Auguste de Montferrand hadn’t done much work as his fellow countrymen in St. Petersburg, his St. Isaac’s Cathedral is enough for us to put his name on our most prominent French architects in St. Petersburg. We at the Star Travel Group recommend our travelers visiting his works on our tour to Russia. We also suggest our tourists visiting our weblog to learn more about other Russia attractive places and our tips on how to travel to Russia.
