Auguste de Montferrand (French: [ogyst də mɔ̃fɛʁɑ̃]; Russian: Огюст Монферран, romanized: Ogyust Monferran; January 23, 1786 – July 10, 1858) was a French classicist architect who worked primarily in Russia. His two best known works are the Saint Isaac's Cathedral and the Alexander Column in Saint Petersburg.

Montferrand was born in the parish of Chaillot, France (now the 16th arrondissement of Paris). He was styled at birth Henri Louis Auguste Leger Ricard de Montferrand; the aristocratic de was probably his parents' invention. Decades later, Montferrand admitted in his will that, although his father owned Montferrand estate (his family was from the town of Montferrand), the title is disputable "and if there is any doubt, I can accept other names, first of all Ricard, after my father". Montferrand's father, Benois Ricard, was a horse trainer who died when Montferrand was a child; his grandfather, Leger Ricard, was a bridge engineer. Montferrand's mother, Marie Francoise Louise Fistioni, remarried to Antoine de Commarieux, who is credited with educating Montferrand. ^{[better source needed]}

In 1806, Montferrand joined the former Académie d'architecture, joining the class of Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine. Soon he was summoned to Napoleon's French Imperial Army, and served a brief tour of duty in Italy.

Montferrand married Julia Mornais in 1812. The next year, he was again drafted into the army when Allied troops were approaching Dresden. Montferrand served with distinction in Thuringia, and was awarded the Légion d'honneur for valor in the Battle of Hanau.

When hostilities ended, new construction in defeated France was out of the question. Montferrand worked on a few unimportant jobs, spending three years performing basic draftsmanship and seeking opportunities overseas. In 1815, he was granted an audience with Alexander I of Russia, and presented the Tsar with an album of his works.

In the summer of 1816, Montferrand landed in St. Petersburg, carrying a recommendation letter from Abraham-Louis Breguet. He rented a room near the house of Fyodor Wigel, the secretary of the Construction Commission, and applied to Agustín de Betancourt, the chairman of the commission (and a partner of Breguet's in the 1790s). Betancourt, impressed by Breguet's letter and Montferrand's drawings, offered Montferrand the desk of Head of Draftsmen, but Montferrand preferred the lower rank of senior draftsman. On December 21, 1816, he officially joined the Russian service.

Montferrand's name is associated with St. Petersburg. However, working with Betancourt, he also designed buildings in Moscow, Odessa, and Nizhny Novgorod. His first major project, the Odessa Lycaeum, did not materialize due to financing problems. His designs for the Moscow Manege (1825) and Moscow fountains (1823) were also abandoned; these projects were completed by Joseph Bové and Ivan Vitali.

In 1816, an accidental fire destroyed the Makaryev Fair. The fairgrounds were transferred to Nizhny Novgorod, equipped with temporary wooden trade rows. 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