Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia, minarets were added after it became a mosque

Hagia Sophia (Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, meaning the Holy Wisdom) is a mosque in the eastern Bosporus of Istanbul, Turkey. It was originally a Byzantine Eastern Orthodox cathedral and was turned into a mosque after the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire. The walls and floor of the building are from the Late Antiquity and the decorations, including mosaics and frescoes, are mostly from the Middle Ages.

History

Hagia Sophia, 1903

Cathedral

Hagia Sophia was the third church built in this location. It was built between 532 and 537 as the cathedral of Constantinople, the capital city of the Eastern Roman Empire during Late Antiquity. Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great ordered the construction. The architects were Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus. Greek historian Procopius wrote about Hagia Sophia's construction. The building's roof (a large dome) fell and had been rebuilt many times. An earthquake in 994 damaged the cathedral, it was rebuilt by Trdat the Architect.^[1]^[2]

Hagia Sophia was used as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral until 1453, except during the Latin Empire when it was turned into a Roman Catholic cathedral.

Mosque

In 1453, after the Fall of Constantinople, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror turned Hagia Sophia into a mosque.^[2]

It became a museum in 1935 after the decision of the secularist Turkish government under Kemal Atatürk in 1934. In July 2020, the Turkish government under Tayyip Erdoğan ordered the Hagia Sophia to be turned back into a mosque following a supreme court annulment of a 1934 presidential decree that made it a museum.^[3]

Hagia Sophia Media

Map of the administrative heart of Constantinople. The Hagia Sophia and the structures of the Great Palace are shown in their approximate position as derived from literary sources. Surviving structures are in black.
Theodosian capital for a column, one of the few remains of the church of Theodosius II
The 6th-century Hagia Sophia (532–537) by Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of the Seville Cathedral (1507) in Spain.
Construction of church depicted in codex Manasses Chronicle (14th century)
Polychrome marble revetment on the wall of the gallery
Hagia Sophia Istanbul, Turkey
3. Part of the domes of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
The mihrab located in the apse where the altar used to stand, pointing towards Mecca. The two giant candlesticks flanking the mihrab were brought in from Ottoman Hungary by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
Fountain (Şadırvan) for ritual ablutions