Hagia Sophia is one of the biggest and most influential building in the history of world architecture. It has a history of thousands of years. It is a very important structure with its architecture, legends, meaning and functionality.

History of Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia; it was built by Emperor Justinianos to Isidoros and Anthemios, the best architects of this time. The construction of which was started in 532, was completed in a short time like 5 years. 5 years is a very short time for a building of this size. The church, which was completed in 537, was opened for worship with a great ceremony.

Hagia Sophia Church is the largest church that the Eastern Roman Empire has built in Istanbul. Its first name is Megale Ekklesia (Great Church). Since the 5th century, it was named as “Hagia Sophia”, which means sacred wisdom. Throughout the Eastern Roman Empire, Hagia Sophia served as the cathedral as the capital’s largest church, crowned by monarchs.



Hagia Sophia was destroyed many times. The damage it suffered during the 4th Crusade is the biggest damage that the building suffered in its history. The knights who took over the city in 1204 looted many holy items found in Hagia Sophia. The earthquake that occurred in the city in 1344 caused a great destruction in Hagia Sophia and its closure to worship for a while. It was repaired in 1354 with special taxes and donations collected from the public and reopened for worship.

The Conquest of Istanbul and Hagia Sophia

In 1453, when the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II conquered the city, this temple, which was used as a church for 916 years, was turned into a mosque as a symbol of the conquest of the city. After conquering Istanbul, Sultan Mehmet, who received the title of Fatih, took ownership of only Hagia Sophia as a loot for him. A madrasa was built in the north of Hagia Sophia during the Fatih Period.



Sultan Mahmud I, another Ottoman sultan, made many additions to Hagia Sophia. He has built a fountain, a median school, a souphouse-imaret, a library, Hünkâr Mahfili and a mihrab, whose architectural beauties are unique. So Hagia Sophia turned into a complex.

Building is Enriched with Additions

Supporting additions were made to the building, which was damaged by various earthquakes since the first day it was built, in both the Eastern Roman and the Ottoman Period.

The most comprehensive repairs in Hagia Sophia were carried out by Fossati during the Abdulmecid Period (1839-1861). Within the scope of these repairs, the Hünkâr Mahfili located in the north of the mihrab was removed and instead of the Hünkâr Mahfili, rising on the columns to the left of the mihrab, surrounded by wooden gilded railings.



Within the scope of environmental arrangements made during the Abdulaziz Period, the madrasah around Hagia Sophia was demolished between the years (1869-1870) and rebuilt between 1873-1874. The ruins of the madrasah, which was destroyed in 1936, were discovered by excavations in 1982.

8 calligraphy plates with a diameter of 7.5 meters were hung on the walls of the main room by calligrapher Kadıasker Mustafa İzzet Efendi. These signs that say “Allah, Muhammed, Ebubekir, Ömer, Osman, Ali, Hasan and Hüseyin” are known as the biggest calligraphy signs in history. The same calligrapher wrote the 35th verse of Surat an-Nur in the center of the dome in the center.



In 1932, in Ayasofya, which was closed for worship for restoration works, studies were carried out by a group of scientists from the USA with the permission of the Turkish government. Mosaics covered with plaster by Fatih Sultan Mehmet were revealed again. At that time, with the decision of the Council of Ministers, the building was converted into a museum and opened to visitors as a museum on February 1, 1935.

Architectural Features

The dimensions of Hagia Sophia are 100 × 70 m and it has an interior area of approximately 7500 m². It has a two-story structure. There are 107 columns in total, 40 of which are on the lower floor and 67 of which are in the gallery section on the upper floor. The longest of the columns is about 20 meters. The columns have a radius of 1.5 meters and an estimated weight of 70 tons. Most of the columns used in the building are older than the building. This is because the columns used were brought from different temples in various parts of Anatolia.



The dome, which was destroyed in the Byzantine period, was repaired. For this reason, the dome is not exactly round, it is closer to the elliptical shape and has two different radii. The dome diameter is between 30.80 and 32.6 meters. The dome height is 55.60 meters.

The magnificent doors of the building are made of oak and still bear the traces of the Byzantine period. The bronze door was specially brought to this structure from a Hellenistic temple in Tarsus and it is the most magnificent door of Hagia Sophia. The main entrance of the space is entered through nine different doors in the western section. Since the three gates in the middle are reserved for the emperor’s entrance, these gates are called “2 Emperor’s Doors”.

The dome, made of brick, which is 55.6 meters above the ground, consists of 40 ribs and 40 huge windows. The colored marbles covering the walls were brought from places such as Thessaly, Egypt, Euboia. White marbles are the famous marbles of Marmara Island.



It is said that the interior of Hagia Sophia is decorated with golden mosaic murals. However, these mosaics are thought to be eliminated during the anti-picture movement. With the end of this trend, mosaics started to be rebuilt towards the end of the 9th century. These mosaics were covered with plaster during the Ottoman Period.

Figured mosaics in Hagia Sophia are:

Mary, holding the child Jesus in her lap, is depicted sitting on the throne above the door, passing from the vestibule to the inner narthex. On the right of Mary, Emperor Constantinus, who presented her with a model of the city, on her left, Emperor Justinian, who presented the model of Hagia Sophia.

The interior of the narthexin cross-toned ceiling is decorated with mosaics from the Iutinianos period (527-565). These are important and valuable because they are the unique mosaics of Hagia Sophia.

Sitting on an ornate throne on the Emperor’s Gate, Jesus was depicted in blessings with his right hand. He has an open book in his right hand. In the medallion to the right of Jesus, there are the busts of Mary, along with the busts of Gabriel.



In the apse, there is the figure of Mary holding her child Jesus in her arms. This 9th century mosaic is the oldest figured mosaic made in Hagia Sophia.

On the east wall of the south gallery, there are mosaics of two families of emperors.