Hagia Sophia

Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see Hagia Sophia (disambiguation), List of churches dedicated to Holy Wisdom, and Sophia of Rome#Churches.

Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia Church was built in 537 AD, with minarets added in the 15th–16th centuries when it became a mosque.[1]
Map
41°00′30″N 28°58′48″E / 41.00833°N 28.98000°E / 41.00833; 28.98000
LocationFatih, Istanbul, Turkey
Designer
Type
MaterialAshlar, Roman brick
Length82 m (269 ft)
Width73 m (240 ft)
Height55 m (180 ft)
Beginning datec. 346
Completion date360; 1664 years ago (360)
Dedicated date15 February 360
Restored date
  • 415
  • 23 February 532–27 February 537
  • 1847–1849
  • 2002–2006
Dedicated toThe Holy Wisdom, a reference to the second person of the Trinity, or Jesus Christ[2]
Website
Part ofHistoric Areas of Istanbul
CriteriaCultural: i, ii, iii, iv
Reference356
Inscription1985 (9th Session)

Hagia Sophia (Turkish: Ayasofya; Ancient Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, romanized: Hagía Sophía; Latin: Sancta Sapientia; lit. 'Holy Wisdom'), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (Turkish: Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi; Greek: Μεγάλο Τζαμί της Αγίας Σοφίας),[3] is a mosque and former church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively erected on the site by the Eastern Roman Empire, it was completed in AD 537. The site was a Greek Orthodox church from AD 360 to 1453, except for a brief time as a Latin Catholic church between the Fourth Crusade and 1261.[4] After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it served as a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum. In 2020, the site once again became a mosque.

The current structure was built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I as the Christian cathedral of Constantinople for the Byzantine Empire between 532 and 537, and was designed by the Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles.[5] It was formally called the Church of God's Holy Wisdom (Greek: Ναὸς τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, romanized: Naòs tês Hagías toû Theoû Sophías)[6][7] and upon completion became the world's largest interior space and among the first to employ a fully pendentive dome. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture[8] and is said to have "changed the history of architecture".[9] The present Justinianic building was the third church of the same name to occupy the site, as the prior one had been destroyed in the Nika riots. As the episcopal see of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, it remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until the Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. Beginning with subsequent Byzantine architecture, Hagia Sophia became the paradigmatic Orthodox church form, and its architectural style was emulated by Ottoman mosques a thousand years later.[10] It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world"[10] and as an architectural and cultural icon of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox civilization.[10][11][12]

The religious and spiritual centre of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand years, the church was dedicated to the Holy Wisdom.[13][14][15] It was where the excommunication of Patriarch Michael I Cerularius was officially delivered by Humbert of Silva Candida, the envoy of Pope Leo IX in 1054, an act considered the start of the East–West Schism. In 1204, it was converted during the Fourth Crusade into a Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire, before being returned to the Eastern Orthodox Church upon the restoration of the Byzantine Empire in 1261. Enrico Dandolo, the doge of Venice who led the Fourth Crusade and the 1204 Sack of Constantinople, was buried in the church.

After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453,[16] it was converted to a mosque by Mehmed the Conqueror and became the principal mosque of Istanbul until the 1616 construction of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque.[17][18] Upon its conversion, the bells, altar, iconostasis, ambo, and baptistery were removed, while iconography, such as the mosaic depictions of Jesus, Mary, Christian saints and angels were removed or plastered over.[19] Islamic architectural additions included four minarets, a minbar and a mihrab. The Byzantine architecture of the Hagia Sophia served as inspiration for many other religious buildings including the Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki, Panagia Ekatontapiliani, the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Rüstem Pasha Mosque and the Kılıç Ali Pasha Complex. The patriarchate moved to the Church of the Holy Apostles, which became the city's cathedral.

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, and the building was Turkey's most visited tourist attraction as of 2019.[20]

In July 2020, the Council of State annulled the 1934 decision to establish the museum, and the Hagia Sophia was reclassified as a mosque. The 1934 decree was ruled to be unlawful under both Ottoman and Turkish law as Hagia Sophia's waqf, endowed by Sultan Mehmed, had designated the site a mosque; proponents of the decision argued the Hagia Sophia was the personal property of the sultan. The decision to designate Hagia Sophia as a mosque was highly controversial. It resulted in divided opinions and drew condemnation from the Turkish opposition, UNESCO, the World Council of Churches and the International Association of Byzantine Studies, as well as numerous international leaders, while several Muslim leaders in Turkey and other countries welcomed its conversion into a mosque.

  1. ^ Emerson, William; van Nice, Robert L. (1950). "Hagia Sophia and the First Minaret Erected after the Conquest of Constantinople". American Journal of Archaeology. 54 (1): 28–40. doi:10.2307/500639. ISSN 0002-9114. JSTOR 500639. S2CID 193099976.
  2. ^ Curta, Florin; Holt, Andrew (2016). Great Events in Religion: An Encyclopedia of Pivotal Events in Religious History [3 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 299. ISBN 978-1-61069-566-4. Hagia Sophia was consecrated on December 27, 537, five years after construction had begun. The church was dedicated to the Wisdom of God, referring to the Logos (the second entity of the Trinity) or, alternatively, Christ as the Logos incarnate.
  3. ^ Eyice, Semavi (1991). "Ayasofya" [Hagia Sophia]. İslâm Ansiklopedisi (in Turkish). Vol. 4. Istanbul: Turkish Diyanet Foundation. pp. 206–210.
  4. ^ Phillips, Jonathan (2005). The Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1-101-12188-7. OCLC 607531385.
  5. ^ Kleiner, Fred S.; Christin J. Mamiya (2008). Gardner's Art Through the Ages: Volume I, Chapters 1–18 (12th ed.). Mason, OH: Wadsworth. p. 329. ISBN 978-0-495-46740-3.
  6. ^ Downey, Glanville (January 1959). "The Name of the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople". Harvard Theological Review. 52 (1): 37–41. doi:10.1017/s001781600002664x. ISSN 0017-8160. S2CID 163442071.
  7. ^ Hamm, Jean S. (2010). Term Paper Resource Guide to Medieval History. ABC-CLIO. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-313-35967-5. Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom, is one of the world's most spectacular churches, representing not only great beauty, but also masterful engineering.
  8. ^ Fazio, Michael; Moffett, Marian; Wodehouse, Lawrence (2009). Buildings Across Time (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education. ISBN 978-0-07-305304-2.
  9. ^ Simons, Marlise (22 August 1993). "Center of Ottoman Power". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  10. ^ a b c Heinle & Schlaich 1996
  11. ^ Cameron 2009.
  12. ^ Meyendorff 1982.
  13. ^ Janin (1953), p. 471.
  14. ^ Binns, John (2002). An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches. Cambridge University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-521-66738-8.
  15. ^ McKenzie, Steven L.; Graham, Matt Patrick (1998). The Hebrew Bible Today: An Introduction to Critical Issues. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-664-25652-4.
  16. ^ Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 112.
  17. ^ Jarus, Owen (1 March 2013). "Hagia Sophia: Facts, History & Architecture". livescience.com. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Hagia Sophia". ArchNet. Archived from the original on 5 January 2009.
  19. ^ Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 91.
  20. ^ "Hagia Sophia still Istanbul's top tourist attraction". hurriyet.