As a young man he was a member of Alexander Labzin's Masonic lodge, the "Dying Sphinx", and studied Boehmist theosophy.

[2] Vitberg won a design competition and in 1817 had the satisfaction of witnessing the groundbreaking ceremony for his neoclassical Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, a monument to the resistance to the French invasion of Russia in 1812.

In order to undertake this project, Vitberg had converted to the Russian Orthodox Church, as stipulated by Tsar Alexander I.

After his conversion, Vitberg changed his name from Karl Magnus to Aleksandr Lavrentyevich (Russian: Александр Лаврентьевич Витберг), after the monarch.

The architect was accused of bribery and exiled to Vyatka, an isolated city halfway between Moscow and the Ural Mountains.