HAGIA SOPHIA, ISTANBUL, TURKEY

SATYA GOPALANSECOND YEAR B

First, Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum, with each development just becoming more and more beautiful and exotic. Justinian’s Hagia Sophia is the one that stands today. It is an architectural intelligence and the first masterpiece in Byzantine architecture. It has been the largest cathedral for 1000 years until the Seville Cathedral was built.

Documents indicate that the first Hagia Sophia was built by Emperor Constantius, son of Emperor Constantinos I, and was opened for services in 360 AD. Although very little is known about this Church, it is assumed that it was a basilica-type structure with a rectangular floor plan, circular apse and timbered roof. The Church was dedicated to the second person of the Holy Trinity.

The first church was known as the "Magna Ecclesia“ or Great Church, because of its larger dimensions in comparison to the contemporary churches in the City. This first church was largely burned down during some riots.

A second church was ordered by Theodosius II, who inaugurated it on 10 October 415. A fire started during the tumult of the Nika Revolt and burned the second Hagia Sophia to the ground on 13–14 January 532.

Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople and a principal setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies, such as coronations. The basilica also offered asylum to wrongdoers

The rebuilding of Hagia Sophia from 532 to 537 was the paramount achievement of Justinian's building campaigns. As the capital's cathedral and the most important church during the empire's long history, the new Hagia Sophia rebuilt by Justinian set a standard in monumental building and domed architecture that would have a lasting effect on the history of Byzantine architecture.

GROUND PLAN FOR HAGIA SOPHIA

FEATURES BUILT WHEN HAGIA SOPHIA WAS A CHURCH

The church has a rectangular shape, and the square vast square nave measuring 31m (102ft) is covered with a central dome that is carried on four pendentives.

The arcade around the dome is unbroken with 40 arched windows to bring the light inside.

Excluding the two narthexes and the large atrium, the basilica measures 70 x 75 m (229 x 245 ft) . The atrium measures 48 x 32 m (157 x 106 ft) and the total length of the construction measures 135 m (442 ft).

The narthex outside at the eastern part of atrium is enclosed, and the inner narthex is entered by 5 doors, and from this inner narthex there are 9 doors to the nave.

The accesses to upper galleries are provided by ramps, which are traditional feature of Constantinopolitan church planning.

“The Church is distinguished by indescribable beauty, excelling both in its size, and in the harmony of its measures, having no part excessive and none deficient; being more magnificent than ordinary buildings, and much more elegant than those which are not of so just a proportion. The church is singularly full of light and sunshine; you would declare that the place is not lighted by the sun from without, but that the rays are produced within itself, such an abundance of light is poured into this church”

Source: Translated by W. Lethabv and H. Swainson, from Procopius, De Aedificiis, in The Church of St. Sophia Constantinople, (New York: 1894), pp. 24-28.

The interior of Hagia Sophia was paneled with costly colored marbles and ornamental stone inlays.

Decorative marble columns were taken from ancient buildings and reused to support the interior arcades.

Initially, the upper part of the building was minimally decorated in gold with a huge cross in a medallion at the summit of the dome

FEATURES BUILT WHEN HAGIA SOPHIA WAS CONVERTED INTO A MOSQUE

(1453-1935)

In 1453 Sultan Mehmed laid siege to Constantinople, driven in part by a desire to convert the city to Islam.

Mehmed II converted Hagia Sophia into the Aya Sofya Mosque.

The building was desecrated and looted, and occupants enslaved or slaughtered; a few of the elderly and infirm were killed, and the remainder chained. Priests continued to perform Christian rites until stopped by the invaders

Columns were inscribed with the names of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad, the first four caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali.

Once Hagia Sophia became a mosque, all the interior figure mosaics were obscured under coatings of plaster and painted ornament; most of the Christian symbols elsewhere were obliterated.

In Islamic religious architecture, the tower from which the faithful are called to prayer five times each day by a muezzin, or crier. Such a tower is always connected with a mosque and has one or more balconies or open galleries. At the time of the Prophet Muhammad, the call to prayer was made from the highest roof in the vicinity of the mosque.

These towers were built to be “landmarks of Islam”—to be visible from afar and to stamp a site with Islamic character. Actually, no building should in principle have any religious significance, for only Allah is to be worshipped, not stones, buildings and holy water. The reality, of course, is somewhat different. The core purpose of a minaret remains to mark the ownership, that this land is Islamic.

MINARET

THE CHURCH AND THE MOSQUE•The mihrab located in the apse where the altar used to stand, pointing towards Mecca.•The central space earlier used as a nave was now a closed s’ahn. •The maqsura, a minbar decorated with marble, a dais for a sermon and a loggia for a muezzin.In 1717, the crumbling plaster

of the interior was renovated, contributing indirectly to the preservation of many mosaics, which otherwise would have been destroyed by mosque workers.

The ablutions tank, another addition

The mosaics in the upper gallery were cleaned. The old chandeliers were replaced by new pendant ones. New gigantic circular-framed disks or medallions were hung on columns.

In 1850, built a new sultan's gallery in a Neo-Byzantine style connected to the royal pavilion behind the mosque

Outside the Aya Sofya, a timekeeper's building and a new madrasah were built. The minarets were altered so that they were of equal height. When the restoration was finished, the mosque was re-opened with ceremonial pomp on 13 July 1849.

PERIPHERAL STRUCTURES AND LATER ADDITIONS

Inscription disks

Restored Mosaics

Today, use of the complex as a place of worship (mosque or church) is strictly prohibited. However, in 2006, it was reported that the Turkish government allowed the allocation of a small room in the museum complex to be used as a prayer room for Christian and Muslim museum staff

MUSEUM (1943-PRESENT)