Montferrand served with distinction in Thuringia, and was awarded the Légion d'honneur for valor in the Battle of Hanau.

Montferrand worked on a few unimportant jobs, spending three years performing basic draftsmanship and seeking opportunities overseas.

Betancourt visited the site in 1817 and proposed a six-million-rouble, four-year project to rebuild the Fair using stone.

Alexander I approved it, at the expense of halting the reconstruction of the Winter Palace Montferrand, as chief architect, reported to Betancourt, who personally managed the project.

[nb 2] The fairground terminated in a row of four "Chinese" pavilions, each with pagoda roofs; the neoclassical Saviour's Cathedral, and was encircled with a wide "Betancourt's Canal"—a precaution against fire.

Columns were roughly cut in Fredrikshamn, delivered by barge, and finished on site one by one, using a gigantic lathe of Montferrand's own design.

Montferrand proposed an all-metal triple-dome system, where the middle conical dome carried the lightweight interior and exterior frames.

Montferrand managed artists such as Karl Briullov and his brothers, Peter Clodt, and Ivan Vitali, all under close inspection by the State and Academy bureaucracies.

The 600-metric-ton (94,000 st) column had to be carved out of Finnish rocks in Virolahti, more than 100 nautical miles (190 km) from St. Petersburg, and transported by barge.

By April 1832, the carvers completed shaping it and started blasting the path from the quarry to the loading bay.

The column broke through the ramp and threatened to roll over the barge; a team of 300 workers managed to set it back in place.

[12] At the same time, crews in St. Petersburg prepared the foundation and scaffolding; the cost estimate doubled to 2.36 million roubles.

Montferrand summoned a total of 2,090 soldiers, officers, and professionals to erect the column, raising it safely on August 30, 1832.

[15] As the chief architect of St. Petersburg's largest construction site, Montferrand supervised many other architectural jobs for the State, notably repairs of Kazan Cathedral.

[16] Nicholas assigned Montferrand to fix the roof, replace floors, and install permanent, durable sculptures and finishes.

Montferrand, as the cathedral's architect, landscaped the adjacent square and designed the monuments to Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly.

In 1834, he was awarded a lifelong pension and a 100,000-rouble lump sum, enabling him to settle his accounts and build his own house.

As his finances improved, Montferrand became a compulsive art collector, amassing 110 Greek and Roman statues and hundreds of lesser items.

[further explanation needed] In 1835, Montferrand married Elise Debonniere, an actress who had arrived in St. Petersburg nine years earlier.