Hagia Sophia

Third church

Hagia Sophia is the third church of its name on the site

The current structure was built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I between 532 and 537. The prior church had been destroyed in the Nika riots. The new one remained the world's largest church for more than five hundred years.

The builders

More than ten thousand people were employed on the construction

Its designers were the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. More than ten thousand people were employed during construction. Upon seeing the finished building, the emperor reportedly said that he had surpassed Solomon.

Ten thousandpeople employed during the construction process

Earthquakes

Earthquakes brought down parts of the dome and half-domes

The eastern semi-dome collapsed in an earthquake in 558. After another earthquake in 989, Emperor Basil II asked the Armenian architect Trdat to direct the repairs. After the earthquake of October 1344, several parts of the building collapsed on 19 May 1346.

A mosque

Mehmed the Conqueror made it a mosque after 1453

After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453, it was converted to a mosque by Mehmed the Conqueror. During Suleiman's reign, the mosaics above the narthex and imperial gates were covered by whitewash and plaster, which were removed in 1930.

Now

A museum from 1935, reclassified as a mosque in 2020

The complex remained a mosque until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum under the secular Republic of Turkey. In 2020 the Council of State annulled the 1934 decision, and the building was reclassified as a mosque.