The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is an architectural marvel built over 1,400 years ago when the city was still known as Constantinople. Throughout its very long life, it has served as a Christian basilica for the Byzantine Empire, a grand mosque for the Ottoman Empire, and a renowned museum for Turkey. Though it looks outwardly like a mosque, with its huge dome and four minarets, it was originally built as an Orthodox cathedral by the Emperor Justinian.
The Hagia Sophia served for a over millennium as the focus of worship for both Orthodox Christians and Turkish Muslims, depending on the ruling empire in control of the ancient city. It even had a short stint ruled by the Crusaders. The name Hagia Sophia (Aya sofya in Turkish) literally means “holy wisdom.” How then did such radial changes, basilica to mosque to museum, come about?
When the Hagia Sofia was first constructed, Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire. This Christian state formed the eastern half of the Roman Empire and continued on for centuries, even after the fall of Rome. The current Hagia Sophia is actually the third building on the site. After moving the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, Constantine the Great realized the city needed of a grand worship space for all its Christians. So he had built a large cathedral, close to his Imperial palace, which was completed in 360 AD.
Rioters burnt that church, with a wooden roof, in the riots of 404. Emperor Theodosius II then ordered the construction of a new church . This Hagia Sophia incarnation, also with a wooden roof, was torched and burned to the ground during the Nika Revolt of 532.
I. CHRISTIAN BASILICA
It was Byzantine Emperor Justinian who ordered the demolition of the second Hagia Sophia. He commissioned two renowned architects Anthemios of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus to build a third basilica in its place like no other. It would have a massive stone dome, semi-domed altar, golden mosaics, and marble floors and walls.
Hagia Sophia’s dimensions are indeed formidable for such an ancient structure. The dome is 108 ft [33 m] in diameter and its peak stands 180 ft [55 m] above the floor. It actually contains two floors, centered on a giant nave with the great dome towering above it. In order to create a central basilica that represented the entire Byzantine Empire, Emperor Justinian commanded that all provinces to send architectural pieces to be used in its construction.
The marble for the floor and ceiling came from Anatolia in eastern Turkey. Bricks used in the walls came from North Africa. The Hagia Sophia’s 104 columns were imported from the ancient Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Thousands of craftsmen and workers gathered from across the vast empire.
The central dome rests on a ring of windows, supported by two semi-domes and two arched openings to create the HUGE nave. The walls were originally lined with intricate Byzantine mosaics made from gold, silver, glass, terra cotta and gems portraying scenes and figures from the Christian Gospels as well as images of the emperors (of course).
The upper part of the dome was decorated in gold with a massive cross in a medallion at the dome’s summit. The dome was a supported by an ingenious, complex system of vaults and semi-domes. Procopius, Justinian’s court historian, described it as “A golden dome suspended from Heaven. It seems not to be founded on masonry, but to be suspended from heaven by a golden chain.” Beneath the dome are 40 windows allowing sunlight to come through at any time of the day.
This third iteration of the Hagia Sophia was completed in just 5 years in 537, and it remains standing today in Istanbul. To put this in comparison, it took nearly a century for medieval builders to construct the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Emperor Justinian is reported to have said, “My Lord, thank you for giving me the chance to create such a worshipping place. Solomon, I have surpassed thee!”
The Hagia Sophia has two levels, the ground floor and the main gallery above. In Byzantine churches, galleries were used as a means to segregate genders and social classes. So, only if you were a higher class male would you get to experience the glorious gallery. To enter the cathedral’s nave from the narthex, there are nine doorways.
The central, Imperial Door, was reserved exclusively for the use of the emperor.
The two waves of iconoclasm (rejection of religious images) swept the Byzantine Empire between 730 and 843. Religious leaders ordered most of the religious icons within the Hagia Sophia to be obscured. The southwest entrance had a large mosaic of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child, flanked by Emperors Constantine and Justinian. All were covered with yellow paint.
Some of the precious mosaics were even destroyed. Unfortunately, few fragments of those originals remain to this day. The cross was promoted as the only acceptable decoration for Byzantine churches. There was concern that the faithful might misdirect their veneration toward the images, rather than to God and Christ alone.
All this was reversed during the reign of subsequent emperors in the 10th century, and icons were reestablished. This gave the opportunity for new mosaics to be placed in the church. The Hagia Sofia therefore remained a work in progress as each new emperor continued to decorate it. A number of mosaics that have been added over the centuries include imperial portraits, imperial families, and the life of Jesus Christ.
When the Crusaders conquered Constantinople in 1204, they converted the Hagia Sophia from an Orthodox basilica to a Catholic cathedral. This lasted only 57 years. In 1261, Michael VIII was crowned emperor and the Hagia Sophia was converted back to an Orthodox church. It was severely damaged during the Crusades, but repaired when the Byzantines once again took control.
As Greek Orthodox was the official religion of the Byzantines, the Hagia Sophia was considered the central church of the faith, and it thus became the place where new emperors were crowned. These ceremonies took place in the central nave, at a large circle of marble and colorful stones in the floor in an intertwining design.
The great church, however, followed the fate of the Byzantine Empire, and its condition declined into the last century before the fall of Constantinople. In the last days of the Empire, those fleeing the approaching Ottoman invaders sought refuge in the Hagia Sophia, praying and hoping for protection and salvation.
II. GRAND MOSQUE
A major change was in store less than 200 years after the Crusades. Byzantine control ended when the Ottoman Empire, led by Emperor Mehmed II, captured Constantinople in 1453. The victorious Ottomans renamed the city Istanbul. The huge Christian cathedral made a strong impression on the Ottoman ruler. “What a dome, that vies in rank with the nine spheres of heaven!” Islam was the central religion of the Ottomans, so he decided to convert it into a grand mosque.
The Ottomans covered the original Orthodox mosaics with Islamic calligraphy. Workers hung large medallion panels on the columns in the nave. They featured the names of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, the first four Caliphs, and the Prophet’s two grandsons. The mosaic of Christ on the main dome was also covered by gold calligraphy. Other Christian mosaics were covered with whitewash plaster.
The Hagia Sophia itself became the personal property of the Ottoman sultan. No changes could be made without the sultan’s approval. Even Islamic zealots dared not not destroy the Christian mosaics of the infidels, since they belonged to the Sultan. The grand style of the Hagia Sophia, in particular its dome, would go on to influence Ottoman architecture for centuries.
Four thin minaret towers were also added during this period. They served a religious purpose (for the muezzin call to prayer) and stood more than 200 ft (60 m) tall – amongst the tallest ever constructed. Workers also added thick exterior buttresses for structural support following a recent earthquake.
A new nave or mihrab was installed in the wall of the Hagia Sophia, as is tradition in mosques, to indicate the direction toward Mecca. Ottoman Emperor Süleyman installed two bronze lamps on each side of the mihrab in the 14 century. Sultan Murad III then added two marble cubes from the Turkish city of Bergama, dating back to 4 B.C.
In the 19th-century, Sultan Abdulmejid ordered an extensive 2 year restoration in 1847. The supervision was handed over to two Swiss-Italian architect brothers, Gaspard and Giuseppe Fossati. Eight new gigantic medallions designed by the calligrapher Kazasker Efendi were hung inside. They carried the names of Allah, Muhammad, the Rashidun, and Muhammad’s two grandsons: Hasan and Husayn.
III. NATIONAL MUSUEM
The Hagia Sofia remained a grand Islamic mosque for 5 centuries, until yet another major change occurred. In 1935, the Turkish government secularized the building and converted it into a museum. The Turkish Council of Ministers stated that due “to its historical significance, the conversion of the Hagia Sophia, a unique architectural monument of art, into a museum will please the entire Eastern world and will cause humanity to gain a new institution of knowledge.”
Mustafa Atatürk, the first president of the Republic of Turkey, even permitted the restoration of the original Christian mosaics in the Hagia Sophia. The restoration of Byzantine mosaics was particular challenging and controversial since it meant the removal of historic Islamic art added by the Sultans.
In 1985, the building was recognized by UNESCO. During 1990’s, the building’s copper roof cracked, causing water to leak down over the fragile mosaics. This prompted a decade-long project to restore the ancient site. Beginning in 2013 however, some Islamic religious leaders in the country began a campaign demanding the Hagia Sophia be restored as a mosque once again. In 2016, Muslim prayers were again held inside after 85 years. The mosaic of the Virgin and Child in the apse was covered by white curtains.
In July 2020, the Turkish Council of State and President Erdoğan officially reclassified it as an Islamic mosque. This caused concerns in UNESCO about what changes this 4th reclassification would bring to the famous building. The World Council of Churches condemned the decision saying it would create suspicion and mistrust.
Today, it is used by Turkish Muslims for prayer and religious services. All visitors, both Muslim and non-Muslim, are still allowed to enter the grand mosque for free, outside of prayer times. Thankfully, research, repair and restoration work continues to this day. The Hagia Sophia remains an important historical and architectural site for international tourism, a pilgrimage site for Orthodox Christians, and a religious site for Muslims in Istanbul.