| From
the time it was built Haghia Sophia, the Church of Divine Wisdom,
has |
| astonished
and entranced all who beheld it, with its great dome symbolising |
| unattainable
infinity. Haghia Sophia was used as a church for 916 years and |
| as
a mosque for 481, so serving as a place of worship for nearly one
and a |
| half
millennia. When it was first built it was known as the Megale Ekklesia
or |
| Great
Church. After the Turkish conquest it was converted into a mosque,
but |
| continued
to be known by the Turkish rendering of its Greek name, Ayasofya. |
| In
1934, at the wish of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish |
| Republic,
the Council of Ministers turned the building into a museum.Haghia |
| Sophia
was constructed by the Byzantine emperor Justinian between 532 |
| and
537. It was the third church of this name on the same site. The first
was |
| a
basilica erected on the site of a former Roman temple, and according
to the |
| historian
Socrates was dedicated on 15 February 360. It was destroyed by |
| fire
in the year 404 in an uprising against Emperor Arcadius. The second |
| church
was built by Emperor Theodosius II and dedicated on 10 October 415, |
| only
to be burnt down in the Nika Revolt on 13 January 532, during the
fifth |
| year
of the reign of Justinian I (527-565).After crushing the revolt Justinian |
| commanded
that a new church be built on a far grander scale than the |
| previous
two. |
| |
| The
chronicler Procopius relates that two architects, Anthemius of Tralles |
| and
Isidorus of Miletus, were appointed for the task. One hundred master |
| craftsmen,
one thousand journeymen, and ten thousand labourers were |
| employed.
Justinian wanted the church to be completed in the shortest |
| possible
time, and sent orders out to all the provinces of his realm |
| commanding
that columns and marbles from ancient cities be sent to . |
| Istanbul
Shiploads arrived from Syria, Egypt and Greece as well as from |
| Asia
Minor.Construction commenced on 23 February 532 and apart from |
| the
decoration was completed in the astonishingly short time of 5 years
10 |
| months
and 24 days. The church was dedicated on 27 December 537 at a |
| magnificent
opening ceremony. Justinian drove up to the church in his |
| victory
chariot, and was welcomed in the atrium by Patriarch Menas. The |
| two
men entered the church hand in hand. Justinian was so impressed by |
| its
splendour, that he exclaimed, ‘Thanks be to God for blessing me with
the |
| good
fortune of constructing such a place of worship. |
| |
| At
the inauguration one thousand bulls, six thousand sheep, six hundred
|
| stags,
one thousand pigs, ten thousand chickens and ten thousand roosters |
| were
sacrificed and alms were distributed to the poor.Haghia Sophia is
the |
| most
outstanding example of a domed basilica. The central space has an |
| area
of seven thousand square metres, and is flanked by two aisles, each |
| divided
from the nave by four verd antique columns. These eight columns |
| were
brought from Ephesus, while the eight porphyry columns beneath the |
| semidomes
were brought from Egypt. Altogether the building contains 107 |
| columns,
whose capitals are among the finest examples of Byzantine stone |
| carving.
These capitals bear the monograms of the Emperor Justinian and |
| his
wife Theodora.The dome rises to 56.6 metres at its apex, and has a |
| diameter
of 32.37 metres. The original dome collapsed in an earthquake j |
| ust
22 years after the church was completed, and was rebuilt in 562 by |
| Isidorus
theYounger, nephew of Isidorus of Miletus. Isidorus the Younger |
| raised
the height of the dome by 2.65 metres to lessen its outward thrust. |
| During
the Latin occupation of Istanbul by the Fourth Crusaders between |
| 1203
and 1261, the church was used for Roman Catholic rites. |
| |
| Emperor
Alexius IV was forced to hand over many of the sacred objects |
| belonging
to the church in repayment for debts to the Latins, and these are |
| now
in Venice.he mosaics of Haghia Sophia are exquisite works of art.
In |
| the
semidome of the apse is a large mosaic depicting the Mother of God |
| with
the Infant Christ, which makes abundant use of gold and silver. The |
| dress
of Mary is worked in dark blue glass mosaic, and she sits on a |
| magnificent
bejewelled throne reminiscent of an imperial throne. The faces |
| of
mother and infant are entrancingly beautiful.Another mosaic not to
be |
| missed
is that above the Imperial Gate showing Leo VI (886-912) bowing |
| before
Christ and asking his sins to be forgiven. A mosaic on the side door |
| of
the inner narthex depicts two emperors with Mary and the Infant Christ. |
| One
of the emperors is Constantine I, shown presenting Mary and Christ |
| with
a model of Constantinople, which was named after him, and the other
is |
| Justinian
I, who is presenting a model of the church that he founded. In the |
| south
gallery is the Deisis mosaic and two others depicting Constantine
IX |
| Monomachos
and the Empress Zoe (11th century) and John Comnenus II |
| with
his wife Eirene and son Alexius (12th century) respectively. In the
north |
| gallery
is the mosaic depicting Emperor Alexander (10th century). Four |
| minarets
were added to the outside of the building at various times after its |
| conversion
into a mosque. The huge buttresses against the exterior walls |
| were
built in the 16th century by the Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan to |
| support
the building, and have enabled it to survive to the present day. |
| |
| Additions
within the church are the mihrap or prayer niche inside the apse, |
| the
bronze lamps to either side of the niche which were brought here from |
| Buda,
and the pulpit and imperial and müezz’sal galleries of carved marble. |
| The
library beyond the south aisle was built by Mahmud I in 1739. All
the |
| additions
were designed with the character of the existing building in mind, |
| the
use of marble for the Ottoman additions reflecting the extensive use
of |
| this
material in the Byzantine building. The inscriptions in the dome and
the |
| large
calligraphic panels bearing the names of God, Muhammed and the four |
| caliphs
are the work of the celebrated 19th century calligrapher, Kazasker |
| Mustafa
Ýzzet Efendi. |
