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Works influenced by the Hagia Sophia

Many buildings have been modeled on the Hagia Sophia's core structure of a large central dome resting on pendentives and buttressed by two semi-domes.

Byzantine churches influenced by the Hagia Sophia include the Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki, and the Hagia Irene. The latter was remodeled to have a dome similar to the Hagia Sophia's during the reign of Justinian.

Several mosques commissioned by the Ottoman dynasty have plans based on the Hagia Sophia, including the Süleymaniye Mosque and the Bayezid II Mosque.[281][282] Ottoman architects preferred to surround the central dome with four semi-domes rather than two.[283] There are four semi-domes on the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Fatih Mosque,[284] and the New Mosque (Istanbul). As with the original plan of the Hagia Sophia, these mosques are entered through colonnaded courtyards. However, the courtyard of the Hagia Sophia no longer exists.

Neo-Byzantine churches modeled on the Hagia Sophia include the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Sibiu[285] and Poti Cathedral. Each closely replicates the internal geometry of the Hagia Sophia. The layout of the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral is nearly identical to the Hagia Sophia in size and geometry. Its marble revetment also mimics the style of the Hagia Sophia.

As with Ottoman mosques, several churches based on the Hagia Sophia include four semi-domes rather than two, such as the Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade.[286][287] The Catedral Metropolitana Ortodoxa in São Paulo and the Église du Saint-Esprit (Paris) both replace the two large tympanums beneath the main dome with two shallow semi-domes. The Église du Saint-Esprit is two thirds the size of the Hagia Sophia.

Several churches combine elements of the Hagia Sophia with a Latin cross plan. For instance, the transept of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis (St. Louis) is formed by two semi-domes surrounding the main dome. The church's column capitals and mosaics also emulate the style of the Hagia Sophia. Other examples include the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia, St Sophia's Cathedral, London, Saint Clement Catholic Church, Chicago, and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Synagogues based on the Hagia Sophia include the Congregation Emanu-El (San Francisco),[288] Great Synagogue of Florence, and Hurva Synagogue.

Detail of the columns

Detail of the columns

Six patriarchs mosaic in the southern tympanum as drawn by the Fossati brothers

Moasics as drawn by the Fossati brothers

's engraving 1672, looking east and showing the apse mosaic

's engraving 1672, looking west

Watercolour of the interior by

Imperial Gate from the nave

19th-century cenotaph of

, and commander of the 1204

Fountain of Ahmed III from the gate of the külliye, by John Frederick Lewis, 1838

Southern side of Hagia Sophia, looking east, by John Frederick Lewis, 1838

Interior of Haghia Sophia

Hagia Sophia from the south-west, 1914

Hagia Sophia in the snow, December 2015

See also the thematically organised full bibliography in Stroth 2021.[1]

Links to related articles

Hagia Sophia kembali jadi masjid setelah sempat berstatus museum dan ditetapkan UNESCO sebagai warisan dunia. Melalui akun Twitternya, Presiden Turki Recep Tayyip Erdogan menganggapnya sebagai kebangkitan bangunan bersejarah tersebut.

"Kebangkitan Hagia Sophia...," tulis Erdogan di akun @RTErdogan yang dilihat detikcom pada Sabtu (11/7/2020). Tweet ini mendapat 23 ribu retweet dan komentar serta 76 ribu like dari para netizen.

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Kembalinya Hagia Sophia menjadi masjid sesuai Majelis Negara Turki membatalkan keputusan kabinet pada 1934. Keputusan ini mengundang reaksi dari masyarakat internasional, dengan sebagian mendukung dan menolak keputusan tersebut.

Terlepas dari reaksi netizen, warga internasional, dan sikap tiap negara, Hagia Sophia memang punya sejarah yang sangat panjang. Dikutip dari History, Hagia Sophia jadi saksi kejatuhan dan kebangkitan dinasti penguasa Turki.

Hagia Sophia dalam bahasa Turki disebut Ayasofya sedangkan dalam bahasa latin adalah Sancta Sophia. Nama Hagia Sophia artinya adalah kebijaksanaan sesuai peruntukan bangunan tersebut sebagai rumah ibadah.

360 Masehi: Kaisar Bizantium, Constantius I, memerintahkan pembangunan Hagia Sophia sebagai sebuah gereja untuk umat Kristen Ortodoks Yunani di Konstantinopel yang kini bernama Istanbul. Awalnya gereja ini beratapkan kayu.

404 : Bangunan Hagia Sophia pertama terbakar akibat kerusuhan yang terjadi di sekitar bangunan tersebut. Kerusuhan diakibatkan konflik politik antar keluarga Kaisar Arkadios yang kemudian menjadi penguasa pada 395-408 AD.

415: Struktur kedua Hagia Sophia selesai dibangun Kaisar Theodosis II yang merupakan penerus Arkadio. Bangunan yang baru memiliki lima nave (tempat bangku-bangku umat) dan jalan masuk yang khas dengan atap terbuat dari kayu.

532: Dikutip dari Encyclopedia Britannica, Hagia Sophia terbakar kedua kalinya dalam peristiwa Revolusi Nika atau Nika Revolt. Revolusi tersebut melawan Kaisar Justinian I yang memerintah pada 527-565. Saat itu Hagia Sophia masih menjadi bangunan penting penganut Ortodoks Yunani.

532: Masih di tahun yang sama, Kaisar Justinian memerintahkan penghancuran Hagia Sophia karena kondisinya yang rusak parah. Dia memerintahkan pembangunan kembali gereja tersebut dengan menunjuk arsitek Isidoros (Milet) dan Anthemios (Tralles).

537: Pembangunan ketiga Hagia Sophia selesai dalam lima tahun dan ibadah pertama dilakukan pada 27 Desember 537. Saat itu Kaisar Justinian disebut mengatakan, "Tuhanku, terima kasih atas kesempatan membangun sebuah tempat ibadah."

Hagia Sophia melanjutkan perannya yang sangat penting dalam politik dan sejarah Bizantium, termasuk menjadi saksi Perang Salib. Wilayah Konstantinopel termasuk Hagia Sophia sempat berada di bawah kekuasaan Romawi untuk waktu singkat. Kekaisaran Bizantium dikisahkan berhasil menguasai kembali kota tersebut dan Hagia Sophia yang kembali rusak.

Perubahan besar Hagia Sophia selanjutnya terjadi sekitar 200 tahun kemudian saat Dinasti Ottoman menguasai Kontantinopel. Di bawah pimpinan Sultan Muhammad Al Fatih (Mehmed II), dinasti ini berhasil menaklukkan wilayah tersebut dan mengganti namanya menjadi Istanbul pada 1453.

Dengan pengaruh Islam, Hagia Sophia diubah menjadi masjid dengan menutup ornamen bangunan yang bertema Orthodox. Ornamen diganti kaligrafi yang didesain Kazasker Mustafa İzzet. Kaligrafi tersebut antara lain tulisan Allah SWT, Nabi Muhammad SAW, empat khalifah pertama, dan dua cucu Rasulullah SAW.

Church of Theodosius II

A second church on the site was ordered by Theodosius II (r. 402–450), who inaugurated it on 10 October 415.[36] The Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae, a fifth-century list of monuments, names Hagia Sophia as Magna Ecclesia, 'Great Church', while the former cathedral Hagia Irene is referred to as Ecclesia Antiqua, 'Old Church'. At the time of Socrates of Constantinople around 440, "both churches [were] enclosed by a single wall and served by the same clergy".[25] Thus, the complex would have encompassed a large area including the future site of the Hospital of Samson.[35] If the fire of 404 destroyed only the 4th-century main basilica church, then the 5th century Theodosian basilica could have been built surrounded by a complex constructed primarily during the fourth century.[35]

During the reign of Theodosius II, the emperor's elder sister, the Augusta Pulcheria (r. 414–453) was challenged by the patriarch Nestorius (r. 10 April 428 – 22 June 431).[37][38] The patriarch denied the Augusta access to the sanctuary of the "Great Church", likely on 15 April 428.[38] According to the anonymous Letter to Cosmas, the virgin empress, a promoter of the cult of the Virgin Mary who habitually partook in the Eucharist at the sanctuary of Nestorius's predecessors, claimed right of entry because of her equivalent position to the Theotokos – the Virgin Mary – "having given birth to God".[39][38] Their theological differences were part of the controversy over the title theotokos that resulted in the Council of Ephesus and the stimulation of Monophysitism and Nestorianism, a doctrine, which like Nestorius, rejects the use of the title.[37] Pulcheria along with Pope Celestine I and Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria had Nestorius overthrown, condemned at the ecumenical council, and exiled.[39][37]

The area of the western entrance to the Justinianic Hagia Sophia revealed the western remains of its Theodosian predecessor, as well as some fragments of the Constantinian church.[35] German archaeologist Alfons Maria Schneider began conducting archaeological excavations during the mid-1930s, publishing his final report in 1941.[35] Excavations in the area that had once been the 6th-century atrium of the Justinianic church revealed the monumental western entrance and atrium, along with columns and sculptural fragments from both 4th- and 5th-century churches.[35] Further digging was abandoned for fear of harming the structural integrity of the Justinianic building, but parts of the excavation trenches remain uncovered, laying bare the foundations of the Theodosian building.

The basilica was built by architect Rufinus.[40][41] The church's main entrance, which may have had gilded doors, faced west, and there was an additional entrance to the east.[42] There was a central pulpit and likely an upper gallery, possibly employed as a matroneum (women's section).[42] The exterior was decorated with elaborate carvings of rich Theodosian-era designs, fragments of which have survived, while the floor just inside the portico was embellished with polychrome mosaics.[35] The surviving carved gable end from the centre of the western façade is decorated with a cross-roundel.[35] Fragments of a frieze of reliefs with 12 lambs representing the 12 apostles also remain; unlike Justinian's 6th-century church, the Theodosian Hagia Sophia had both colourful floor mosaics and external decorative sculpture.[35]

At the western end, surviving stone fragments of the structure show there was vaulting, at least at the western end.[35] The Theodosian building had a monumental propylaeum hall with a portico that may account for this vaulting, which was thought by the original excavators in the 1930s to be part of the western entrance of the church itself.[35] The propylaeum opened onto an atrium which lay in front of the basilica church itself. Preceding the propylaeum was a steep monumental staircase following the contours of the ground as it sloped away westwards in the direction of the Strategion, the Basilica, and the harbours of the Golden Horn.[35] This arrangement would have resembled the steps outside the atrium of the Constantinian Old St Peter's Basilica in Rome.[35] Near the staircase, there was a cistern, perhaps to supply a fountain in the atrium or for worshippers to wash with before entering.[35]

The 4th-century skeuophylakion was replaced in the 5th century by the present-day structure, a rotunda constructed of banded masonry in the lower two levels and of plain brick masonry in the third.[35] Originally this rotunda, probably employed as a treasury for liturgical objects, had a second-floor internal gallery accessed by an external spiral staircase and two levels of niches for storage.[35] A further row of windows with marble window frames on the third level remain bricked up.[35] The gallery was supported on monumental consoles with carved acanthus designs, similar to those used on the late 5th-century Column of Leo.[35] A large lintel of the skeuophylakion's western entrance – bricked up during the Ottoman era – was discovered inside the rotunda when it was archaeologically cleared to its foundations in 1979, during which time the brickwork was also repointed.[35] The skeuophylakion was again restored in 2014 by the Vakıflar.[35]

A fire started during the tumult of the Nika Revolt, which had begun nearby in the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and the second Hagia Sophia was burnt to the ground on 13–14 January 532. The court historian Procopius wrote:[43]

And by way of shewing that it was not against the Emperor alone that they [the rioters] had taken up arms, but no less against God himself, unholy wretches that they were, they had the hardihood to fire the Church of the Christians, which the people of Byzantium call "Sophia", an epithet which they have most appropriately invented for God, by which they call His temple; and God permitted them to accomplish this impiety, foreseeing into what an object of beauty this shrine was destined to be transformed. So the whole church at that time lay a charred mass of ruins.

— Procopius, De aedificiis, I.1.21–22

Church of Justinian I (current structure)

On 23 February 532, only a few weeks after the destruction of the second basilica, Emperor Justinian I inaugurated the construction of a third and entirely different basilica, larger and more majestic than its predecessors.[44] Justinian appointed two architects, mathematician Anthemius of Tralles and geometer and engineer Isidore of Miletus, to design the building.[45][46]

Construction of the church began in 532 during the short tenure of Phocas as praetorian prefect.[47] Although Phocas had been arrested in 529 as a suspected practitioner of paganism, he replaced John the Cappadocian after the Nika Riots saw the destruction of the Theodosian church.[47] According to John the Lydian, Phocas was responsible for funding the initial construction of the building with 4,000 Roman pounds of gold, but he was dismissed from office in October 532.[48][47] John the Lydian wrote that Phocas had acquired the funds by moral means, but Evagrius Scholasticus later wrote that the money had been obtained unjustly.[49][47]

According to Anthony Kaldellis, both of Hagia Sophia's architects named by Procopius were associated with the school of the pagan philosopher Ammonius of Alexandria.[47] It is possible that both they and John the Lydian considered Hagia Sophia a great temple for the supreme Neoplatonist deity who manifestated through light and the sun. John the Lydian describes the church as the "temenos of the Great God" (Greek: τὸ τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ Τέμενος, romanized: tò toû megálou theoû Témenos).[48][47]

Originally the exterior of the church was covered with marble veneer, as indicated by remaining pieces of marble and surviving attachments for lost panels on the building's western face.[50] The white marble cladding of much of the church, together with gilding of some parts, would have given Hagia Sophia a shimmering appearance quite different from the brick- and plaster-work of the modern period, and would have significantly increased its visibility from the sea.[50] The cathedral's interior surfaces were sheathed with polychrome marbles, green and white with purple porphyry, and gold mosaics. The exterior was clad in stucco that was tinted yellow and red during the 19th-century restorations by the Fossati architects.[51]

The construction is described by Procopius in On Buildings (Greek: Περὶ κτισμάτων, romanized: Peri ktismatōn, Latin: De aedificiis).[43] Columns and other marble elements were imported from throughout the Mediterranean, although the columns were once thought to be spoils from cities such as Rome and Ephesus.[52] Even though they were made specifically for Hagia Sophia, they vary in size.[53] More than ten thousand people were employed during the construction process. This new church was contemporaneously recognized as a major work of architecture. Outside the church was an elaborate array of monuments around the bronze-plated Column of Justinian, topped by an equestrian statue of the emperor which dominated the Augustaeum, the open square outside the church which connected it with the Great Palace complex through the Chalke Gate. At the edge of the Augustaeum was the Milion and the Regia, the first stretch of Constantinople's main thoroughfare, the Mese. Also facing the Augustaeum were the enormous Constantinian thermae, the Baths of Zeuxippus, and the Justinianic civic basilica under which was the vast cistern known as the Basilica Cistern. On the opposite side of Hagia Sophia was the former cathedral, Hagia Irene.

Referring to the destruction of the Theodosian Hagia Sophia and comparing the new church with the old, Procopius lauded the Justinianic building, writing in De aedificiis:[43]

... the Emperor Justinian built not long afterwards a church so finely shaped, that if anyone had enquired of the Christians before the burning if it would be their wish that the church should be destroyed and one like this should take its place, shewing them some sort of model of the building we now see, it seems to me that they would have prayed that they might see their church destroyed forthwith, in order that the building might be converted into its present form.

— Procopius, De aedificiis, I.1.22–23

Upon seeing the finished building, the Emperor reportedly said: "Solomon, I have surpassed thee" (Medieval Greek: Νενίκηκά σε Σολομών).[54]

Justinian and Patriarch Menas inaugurated the new basilica on 27 December 537, 5 years and 10 months after construction started, with much pomp.[55][56][57] Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and a principal setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies, such as coronations. The basilica offered sanctuary from persecution to criminals, although there was disagreement about whether Justinian had intended for murderers to be eligible for asylum.[58]

Earthquakes in August 553 and on 14 December 557 caused cracks in the main dome and eastern semi-dome. According to the Chronicle of John Malalas, during a subsequent earthquake on 7 May 558,[60] the eastern semi-dome collapsed, destroying the ambon, altar, and ciborium. The collapse was due mainly to the excessive bearing load and to the enormous shear load of the dome, which was too flat.[55] These caused the deformation of the piers which sustained the dome.[55] Justinian ordered an immediate restoration. He entrusted it to Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus, who used lighter materials. The entire vault had to be taken down and rebuilt 20 Byzantine feet (6.25 m or 20.5 ft) higher than before, giving the building its current interior height of 55.6 m (182 ft).[61] Moreover, Isidorus changed the dome type, erecting a ribbed dome with pendentives whose diameter was between 32.7 and 33.5 m.[55] Under Justinian's orders, eight Corinthian columns were disassembled from Baalbek, Lebanon and shipped to Constantinople around 560.[62] This reconstruction, which gave the church its present 6th-century form, was completed in 562. The poet Paul the Silentiary composed an ekphrasis, or long visual poem, for the re-dedication of the basilica presided over by Patriarch Eutychius on 24 December 562. Paul the Silentiary's poem is conventionally known under the Latin title Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae, and he was also author of another ekphrasis on the ambon of the church, the Descripto Ambonis.[63][64]

According to the history of the patriarch Nicephorus I and the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor, various liturgical vessels of the cathedral were melted down on the order of the emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641) after the capture of Alexandria and Roman Egypt by the Sasanian Empire during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628.[65] Theophanes states that these were made into gold and silver coins, and a tribute was paid to the Avars.[65] The Avars attacked the extramural areas of Constantinople in 623, causing the Byzantines to move the "garment" relic (Ancient Greek: ἐσθής, romanized: esthḗs) of Mary, mother of Jesus to Hagia Sophia from its usual shrine of the Church of the Theotokos at Blachernae just outside the Theodosian Walls.[66] On 14 May 626, the Scholae Palatinae, an elite body of soldiers, protested in Hagia Sophia against a planned increase in bread prices, after a stoppage of the Cura Annonae rations resulting from the loss of the grain supply from Egypt.[67] The Persians under Shahrbaraz and the Avars together laid the siege of Constantinople in 626; according to the Chronicon Paschale, on 2 August 626, Theodore Syncellus, a deacon and presbyter of Hagia Sophia, was among those who negotiated unsuccessfully with the khagan of the Avars.[68] A homily, attributed by existing manuscripts to Theodore Syncellus and possibly delivered on the anniversary of the event, describes the translation of the Virgin's garment and its ceremonial re-translation to Blachernae by the patriarch Sergius I after the threat had passed.[68][69] Another eyewitness account of the Avar–Persian siege was written by George of Pisidia, a deacon of Hagia Sophia and an administrative official in for the patriarchate from Antioch in Pisidia.[68] Both George and Theodore, likely members of Sergius's literary circle, attribute the defeat of the Avars to the intervention of the Theotokos, a belief that strengthened in following centuries.[68]

In 726, the emperor Leo the Isaurian issued a series of edicts against the veneration of images, ordering the army to destroy all icons – ushering in the period of Byzantine iconoclasm. At that time, all religious pictures and statues were removed from the Hagia Sophia. Following a brief hiatus during the reign of Empress Irene (797–802), the iconoclasts returned. Emperor Theophilus (r. 829–842) had two-winged bronze doors with his monograms installed at the southern entrance of the church.[70]

The basilica suffered damage, first in a great fire in 859, and again in an earthquake on 8 January 869 that caused the collapse of one of the half-domes.[71] Emperor Basil I ordered repair of the tympanas, arches, and vaults.[72]

In his book De caerimoniis aulae Byzantinae ("Book of Ceremonies"), the emperor Constantine VII (r. 913–959) wrote a detailed account of the ceremonies held in the Hagia Sophia by the emperor and the patriarch.

Early in the 10th century, the pagan ruler of the Kievan Rus' sent emissaries to his neighbors to learn about Judaism, Islam, and Roman and Orthodox Christianity. After visiting Hagia Sophia his emissaries reported back: "We were led into a place where they serve their God, and we did not know where we were, in heaven or on earth."[73]

In the 940s or 950s, probably around 954 or 955, after the Rus'–Byzantine War of 941 and the death of the Grand Prince of Kiev, Igor I (r. 912–945), his widow Olga of Kiev – regent for her infant son Sviatoslav I (r. 945–972) – visited the emperor Constantine VII and was received as queen of the Rus' in Constantinople.[74][75][76] She was probably baptized in Hagia Sophia's baptistery, taking the name of the reigning augusta, Helena Lecapena, and receiving the titles zōstē patrikía and the styles of archontissa and hegemon of the Rus'.[75][74] Her baptism was an important step towards the Christianization of the Kievan Rus', though the emperor's treatment of her visit in De caerimoniis does not mention baptism.[75][74] Olga is deemed a saint and equal-to-the-apostles (Ancient Greek: ἰσαπόστολος, romanized: isapóstolos) in the Eastern Orthodox Church.[77][78] According to an early 14th-century source, the second church in Kiev, Saint Sophia's, was founded in anno mundi 6460 in the Byzantine calendar, or c. 952.[79] The name of this future cathedral of Kiev probably commemorates Olga's baptism at Hagia Sophia.[79]

After the great earthquake of 25 October 989, which collapsed the western dome arch, Emperor Basil II asked for the Armenian architect Trdat, creator of the Cathedral of Ani, to direct the repairs.[80] He erected again and reinforced the fallen dome arch, and rebuilt the west side of the dome with 15 dome ribs.[81] The extent of the damage required six years of repair and reconstruction; the church was re-opened on 13 May 994. At the end of the reconstruction, the church's decorations were renovated, including the addition of four immense paintings of cherubs; a new depiction of Christ on the dome; a burial cloth of Christ shown on Fridays, and on the apse a new depiction of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus, between the apostles Peter and Paul.[82] On the great side arches were painted the prophets and the teachers of the church.[82]

According to the 13th-century Greek historian Niketas Choniates, the emperor John II Comnenus celebrated a revived Roman triumph after his victory over the Danishmendids at the siege of Kastamon in 1133.[83] After proceeding through the streets on foot carrying a cross with a silver quadriga bearing the icon of the Virgin Mary, the emperor participated in a ceremony at the cathedral before entering the imperial palace.[84] In 1168, another triumph was held by the emperor Manuel I Comnenus, again preceding with a gilded silver quadriga bearing the icon of the Virgin from the now-demolished East Gate (or Gate of St Barbara, later the Turkish: Top Kapısı, lit. 'Cannon Gate') in the Propontis Wall, to Hagia Sophia for a thanks-giving service, and then to the imperial palace.[85]

In 1181, the daughter of the emperor Manuel I, Maria Comnena, and her husband, the caesar Renier of Montferrat, fled to Hagia Sophia at the culmination of their dispute with the empress Maria of Antioch, regent for her son, the emperor Alexius II Comnenus.[86] Maria Comnena and Renier occupied the cathedral with the support of the patriarch, refusing the imperial administration's demands for a peaceful departure.[86] According to Niketas Choniates, they "transformed the sacred courtyard into a military camp", garrisoned the entrances to the complex with locals and mercenaries, and despite the strong opposition of the patriarch, made the "house of prayer into a den of thieves or a well-fortified and precipitous stronghold, impregnable to assault", while "all the dwellings adjacent to Hagia Sophia and adjoining the Augusteion were demolished by [Maria's] men".[86] A battle ensued in the Augustaion and around the Milion, during which the defenders fought from the "gallery of the Catechumeneia (also called the Makron)" facing the Augusteion, from which they eventually retreated and took up positions in the exonarthex of Hagia Sophia itself.[86] At this point, "the patriarch was anxious lest the enemy troops enter the temple, with unholy feet trample the holy floor, and with hands defiled and dripping with blood still warm plunder the all-holy dedicatory offerings".[86] After a successful sally by Renier and his knights, Maria requested a truce, the imperial assault ceased, and an amnesty was negotiated by the megas doux Andronikos Kontostephanos and the megas hetaireiarches John Doukas.[86] Greek historian Niketas Choniates compared the preservation of the cathedral to the efforts made by the 1st-century emperor Titus to avoid the destruction of the Second Temple during the siege of Jerusalem in the First Jewish–Roman War.[86] Choniates reports that in 1182, a white hawk wearing jesses was seen to fly from the east to Hagia Sophia, flying three times from the "building of the Thōmaitēs" (a basilica erected on the southeastern side of the Augustaion) to the Palace of the Kathisma in the Great Palace, where new emperors were acclaimed.[87] This was supposed to presage the end of the reign of Andronicus I Comnenus (r. 1183–1185).[87]

Choniates further writes that in 1203, during the Fourth Crusade, the emperors Isaac II Angelus and Alexius IV Angelus stripped Hagia Sophia of all gold ornaments and silver oil-lamps in order to pay off the Crusaders who had ousted Alexius III Angelus and helped Isaac return to the throne.[88] Upon the subsequent Sack of Constantinople in 1204, the church was further ransacked and desecrated by the Crusaders, as described by Choniates, though he did not witness the events in person. According to his account, composed at the court of the rump Empire of Nicaea, Hagia Sophia was stripped of its remaining metal ornaments, its altar was smashed into pieces, and a "woman laden with sins" sang and danced on the synthronon.[89][90][91] He adds that mules and donkeys were brought into the cathedral's sanctuary to carry away the gilded silver plating of the bema, the ambo, and the doors and other furnishings, and that one of them slipped on the marble floor and was accidentally disembowelled, further contaminating the place.[89] According to Ali ibn al-Athir, whose treatment of the Sack of Constantinople was probably dependent on a Christian source, the Crusaders massacred some clerics who had surrendered to them.[92] Much of the interior was damaged and would not be repaired until its return to Orthodox control in 1261.[34] The sack of Hagia Sophia, and Constantinople in general, remained a sore point in Catholic–Eastern Orthodox relations.[93]

During the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–1261), the church became a Latin Catholic cathedral. Baldwin I of Constantinople (r. 1204–1205) was crowned emperor on 16 May 1204 in Hagia Sophia in a ceremony which closely followed Byzantine practices. Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice who commanded the sack and invasion of the city by the Latin Crusaders in 1204, is buried inside the church, probably in the upper eastern gallery. In the 19th century, an Italian restoration team placed a cenotaph marker, frequently mistaken as being a medieval artifact, near the probable location and is still visible today. The original tomb was destroyed by the Ottomans during the conversion of the church into a mosque.[94]

Upon the capture of Constantinople in 1261 by the Empire of Nicaea and the emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, (r. 1261–1282), the church was in a dilapidated state. In 1317, emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus (r. 1282–1328) ordered four new buttresses (Medieval Greek: Πυραμίδας, romanized: Pyramídas) to be built in the eastern and northern parts of the church, financing them with the inheritance of his late wife, Irene of Montferrat (d.1314).[19] New cracks developed in the dome after the earthquake of October 1344, and several parts of the building collapsed on 19 May 1346. Repairs by architects Astras and Peralta began in 1354.[71][95]

On 12 December 1452, Isidore of Kiev proclaimed in Hagia Sophia the long-anticipated ecclesiastical union between the western Catholic and eastern Orthodox Churches as decided at the Council of Florence and decreed by the papal bull Laetentur Caeli, though it would be short-lived. The union was unpopular among the Byzantines, who had already expelled the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory III, for his pro-union stance. A new patriarch was not installed until after the Ottoman conquest. According to the Greek historian Doukas, the Hagia Sophia was tainted by these Catholic associations, and the anti-union Orthodox faithful avoided the cathedral, considering it to be a haunt of demons and a "Hellenic" temple of Roman paganism.[96] Doukas also notes that after the Laetentur Caeli was proclaimed, the Byzantines dispersed discontentedly to nearby venues where they drank toasts to the Hodegetria icon, which had, according to late Byzantine tradition, interceded to save them in the former sieges of Constantinople by the Avar Khaganate and the Umayyad Caliphate.[97]

According to Nestor Iskander's Tale on the Taking of Tsargrad, the Hagia Sophia was the focus of an alarming omen interpreted as the Holy Spirit abandoning Constantinople on 21 May 1453, in the final days of the Siege of Constantinople.[98] The sky lit up, illuminating the city, and "many people gathered and saw on the Church of the Wisdom, at the top of the window, a large flame of fire issuing forth. It encircled the entire neck of the church for a long time. The flame gathered into one; its flame altered, and there was an indescribable light. At once it took to the sky. ... The light itself has gone up to heaven; the gates of heaven were opened; the light was received; and again they were closed."[98] This phenomenon was perhaps St Elmo's fire induced by gunpowder smoke and unusual weather.[98] The author relates that the fall of the city to "Mohammadenism" was foretold in an omen seen by Constantine the Great – an eagle fighting with a snake – which also signified that "in the end Christianity will overpower Mohammedanism, will receive the Seven Hills, and will be enthroned in it".[98]

The eventual fall of Constantinople had long been predicted in apocalyptic literature.[99] A reference to the destruction of a city founded on seven hills in the Book of Revelation was frequently understood to be about Constantinople, and the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius had predicted an "Ishmaelite" conquest of the Roman Empire.[99] In this text, the Muslim armies reach the Forum Bovis before being turned back by divine intervention; in later apocalyptic texts, the climactic turn takes place at the Column of Theodosius closer to Hagia Sophia; in others, it occurs at the Column of Constantine, which is closer still.[99] Hagia Sophia is mentioned in a hagiography of uncertain date detailing the life of the Eastern Orthodox saint Andrew the Fool.[100] The text is self-attributed to Nicephorus, a priest of Hagia Sophia, and contains a description of the end time in the form of a dialogue, in which the interlocutor, upon being told by the saint that Constantinople will be sunk in a flood and that "the waters as they gush forth will irresistibly deluge her and cover her and surrender her to the terrifying and immense sea of the abyss", says "some people say that the Great Church of God will not be submerged with the city but will be suspended in the air by an invisible power".[100] The reply is given that "When the whole city sinks into the sea, how can the Great Church remain? Who will need her? Do you think God dwells in temples made with hands?"[100] The Column of Constantine, however, is prophesied to endure.[100]

From the time of Procopius in the reign of Justinian, the equestrian imperial statue on the Column of Justinian in the Augustaion beside Hagia Sophia, which gestured towards Asia with right hand, was understood to represent the emperor holding back the threat to the Romans from the Sasanian Empire in the Roman–Persian Wars, while the orb or globus cruciger held in the statue's left was an expression of the global power of the Roman emperor.[101] Subsequently, in the Arab–Byzantine wars, the threat held back by the statue became the Umayyad Caliphate, and later, the statue was thought to be fending off the advance of the Turks.[101] The identity of the emperor was often confused with that of other famous saint-emperors like Theodosius I and Heraclius.[101] The orb was frequently referred to as an apple in foreigners' accounts of the city, and it was interpreted in Greek folklore as a symbol of the Turks' mythological homeland in Central Asia, the "Lone Apple Tree".[101] The orb fell to the ground in 1316 and was replaced by 1325, but while it was still in place around 1412, by the time Johann Schiltberger saw the statue in 1427, the "empire-apple" (German: Reichsapfel) had fallen to the earth.[101] An attempt to raise it again in 1435 failed, and this amplified the prophecies of the city's fall.[101] For the Turks, the "red apple" (Turkish: kızıl elma) came to symbolize Constantinople itself and subsequently the military supremacy of the Islamic caliphate over the Christian empire.[101] In Niccolò Barbaro's account of the fall of the city in 1453, the Justinianic monument was interpreted in the last days of the siege as representing the city's founder Constantine the Great, indicating "this is the way my conqueror will come".[98]

According to Laonicus Chalcocondyles, Hagia Sophia was a refuge for the population during the city's capture.[102] Despite the ill-repute and empty state of Hagia Sophia after December 1452, Doukas writes that after the Theodosian Walls were breached, the Byzantines took refuge there as the Turks advanced through the city: "All the women and men, monks, and nuns ran to the Great Church. They, both men and women, were holding in their arms their infants. What a spectacle! That street was crowded, full of human beings."[102] He attributes their change of heart to a prophecy.[102]

What was the reason that compelled all to flee to the Great Church? They had been listening, for many years, to some pseudo-soothsayers, who had declared that the city was destined to be handed over to the Turks, who would enter in large numbers and would massacre the Romans as far as the Column of Constantine the Great. After this an angel would descend, holding his sword. He would hand over the kingdom, together with the sword, to some insignificant, poor, and humble man who would happen to be standing by the Column. He would say to him: "Take this sword and avenge the Lord's people." Then the Turks would be turned back, would be massacred by the pursuing Romans, and would be ejected from the city and from all places in the west and the east and would be driven as far as the borders of Persia, to a place called the Lone Tree …. That was the cause for the flight into the Great Church. In one hour that famous and enormous church was filled with men and women. An innumerable crowd was everywhere: upstairs, downstairs, in the courtyards, and in every conceivable place. They closed the gates and stood there, hoping for salvation.

In accordance with the traditional custom of the time, Sultan Mehmed II allowed his troops and his entourage three full days of unbridled pillage and looting in the city shortly after it was captured. This period saw the destruction of many Orthodox churches;[103] Hagia Sophia itself was looted as the invaders believed it to contain the greatest treasures of the city.[104] Shortly after the defence of the Walls of Constantinople collapsed and the victorious Ottoman troops entered the city, the pillagers and looters made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors before storming inside.[105] Once the three days passed, Mehmed was to claim the city's remaining contents for himself.[106][107] However, by the end of the first day, he proclaimed that the looting should cease as he felt profound sadness when he toured the looted and enslaved city.[108][106][109]

Throughout the siege of Constantinople, the trapped people of the city participated in the Divine Liturgy and the Prayer of the Hours at the Hagia Sophia, and the church was a safe-haven and a refuge for many of those who were unable to contribute to the city's defence, including women, children, elderly, the sick and the wounded.[110][111][109] As they were trapped in the church, the many congregants and other refugees inside became spoils-of-war to be divided amongst the triumphant invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, and those who sought shelter within the church were enslaved.[104] While most of the elderly and the infirm, injured, and sick were killed, the remainder (mainly teenage males and young boys) were chained and sold into slavery.[105][109]

Constantinople fell to the attacking Ottoman forces on 29 May 1453. Sultan Mehmed II entered the city and performed the Friday prayer and khutbah (sermon) in Hagia Sophia, and this action marked the official conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.[112] The church's priests and religious personnel continued to perform Christian rites, prayers, and ceremonies until they were compelled to stop by the invaders.[105] When Mehmed and his entourage entered the church, he ordered that it be converted into a mosque immediately. One of the ʿulamāʾ (Islamic scholars) present climbed onto the church's ambo and recited the shahada ("There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger"), thus marking the beginning of the conversion of the church into a mosque.[19][113] Mehmed is reported to have taken a sword to a soldier who tried to pry up one of the paving slabs of the Proconnesian marble floor.[114]

As described by Western visitors before 1453, such as the Córdoban nobleman Pero Tafur[115] and the Florentine geographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti,[116] the church was in a dilapidated state, with several of its doors fallen from their hinges. Mehmed II ordered a renovation of the building. Mehmed attended the first Friday prayer in the mosque on 1 June 1453.[117] Aya Sofya became the first imperial mosque of Istanbul.[118] Most of the existing houses in the city and the area of the future Topkapı Palace were endowed to the corresponding waqf.[19] From 1478, 2,360 shops, 1,300 houses, 4 caravanserais, 30 boza shops, and 23 shops of sheep heads and trotters gave their income to the foundation.[119] Through the imperial charters of 1520 (AH 926) and 1547 (AH 954), shops and parts of the Grand Bazaar and other markets were added to the foundation.[19]

Before 1481, a small minaret was erected on the southwest corner of the building, above the stair tower.[19] Mehmed's successor Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512) later built another minaret at the northeast corner.[19] One of the minarets collapsed after the earthquake of 1509,[19] and around the middle of the 16th century they were both replaced by two diagonally opposite minarets built at the east and west corners of the edifice.[19] In 1498, Bernardo Bonsignori was the last Western visitor to Hagia Sophia to report seeing the ancient Justinianic floor; shortly afterwards the floor was covered over with carpet and not seen again until the 19th century.[114]

In the 16th century, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566) brought two colossal candlesticks from his conquest of the Kingdom of Hungary and placed them on either side of the mihrab. During Suleiman's reign, the mosaics above the narthex and imperial gates depicting Jesus, Mary, and various Byzantine emperors were covered by whitewash and plaster, which were removed in 1930 under the Turkish Republic.[120][better source needed]

During the reign of Selim II (r. 1566–1574), the building started showing signs of fatigue and was extensively strengthened with the addition of structural supports to its exterior by Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, who was also an earthquake engineer.[121] In addition to strengthening the historic Byzantine structure, Sinan built two additional large minarets at the western end of the building, the original sultan's lodge and the türbe (mausoleum) of Selim II to the southeast of the building in 1576–1577 (AH 984). In order to do that, parts of the Patriarchate at the south corner of the building were pulled down the previous year.[19] Moreover, the golden crescent was mounted on the top of the dome,[19] and a respect zone 35 arşın (about 24 m) wide was imposed around the building, leading to the demolition of all houses within the perimeter.[19] The türbe became the location of the tombs of 43 Ottoman princes.[19] Murad III (r. 1574–1595) imported two large alabaster Hellenistic urns from Pergamon (Bergama) and placed them on two sides of the nave.[19]

In 1594 (AH 1004) Mimar (court architect) Davud Ağa built the türbe of Murad III, where the Sultan and his valide, Safiye Sultan were buried.[19] The octagonal mausoleum of their son Mehmed III (r. 1595–1603) and his valide was built next to it in 1608 (AH 1017) by royal architect Dalgiç Mehmet Aĝa.[122] His son Mustafa I (r. 1617–1618, 1622–1623) converted the baptistery into his türbe.[122]

In 1717, under the reign of Sultan Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730), 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.[122] In fact, it was usual for the mosaic's tesserae—believed to be talismans—to be sold to visitors.[122] Sultan Mahmud I ordered the restoration of the building in 1739 and added a medrese (a Koranic school, subsequently the library of the museum), an imaret (soup kitchen for distribution to the poor) and a library, and in 1740 he added a Şadirvan (fountain for ritual ablutions), thus transforming it into a külliye, or social complex. At the same time, a new sultan's lodge and a new mihrab were built inside.[123]

The 19th-century restoration of the Hagia Sophia was ordered by Sultan Abdulmejid I (r. 1823–1861) and completed between 1847 and 1849 by eight hundred workers under the supervision of the Swiss-Italian architect brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati. The brothers consolidated the dome with a restraining iron chain and strengthened the vaults, straightened the columns, and revised the decoration of the exterior and the interior of the building.[124] The mosaics in the upper gallery were exposed and cleaned, although many were recovered "for protection against further damage".[125]

Eight new gigantic circular-framed discs or medallions were hung from the cornice, on each of the four piers and at either side of the apse and the west doors. These were designed by the calligrapher Kazasker Mustafa Izzet Efendi (1801–1877) and painted with the names of Allah, Muhammad, the Rashidun (the first four caliphs: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali), and the two grandsons of Muhammad: Hasan and Husayn, the sons of Ali.[126] In 1850, the architects Fossati built a new maqsura or caliphal loge in Neo-Byzantine columns and an Ottoman–Rococo style marble grille connecting to the royal pavilion behind the mosque.[124] The new maqsura was built at the extreme east end of the northern aisle, next to the north-eastern pier. The existing maqsura in the apse, near the mihrab, was demolished.[124] A new entrance was constructed for the sultan: the Hünkar Mahfili.[124] The Fossati brothers also renovated the minbar and mihrab.

Outside the main building, the minarets were repaired and altered so that they were of equal height.[125] A clock building, the Muvakkithane, was built by the Fossatis for use by the muwaqqit (the mosque timekeeper), and a new madrasa (Islamic school) was constructed. The Kasr-ı Hümayun was also built under their direction.[124] When the restoration was finished, the mosque was re-opened with a ceremony on 13 July 1849.[127] An edition of lithographs from drawings made during the Fossatis' work on Hagia Sophia was published in London in 1852, entitled: Aya Sophia of Constantinople as Recently Restored by Order of H.M. The Sultan Abdulmedjid.[124]

Main (western) façade of Hagia Sophia, seen from courtyard of the

after Gaspard Fossati (1852).

South-eastern side, seen from the Imperial Gate of the

in the distance. Lithograph by Louis Haghe after Gaspard Fossati (1852).

's 1852 depiction of the Hagia Sophia, after his and his brother's renovation. Lithograph by

Nave before restoration, facing east

Nave and apse after restoration, facing east

Nave and entrance after restoration, facing west

Narthex, facing north

Exonarthex, facing north

North aisle from the entrance, facing east

North aisle, facing west

Nave and south aisle from the north aisle

Northern gallery and entrance to the matroneum from the north-west

Southern gallery from the south-west

Southern gallery from the Marble Door facing west

Southern gallery from the Marble Door facing east

In the aftermath of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, Constantinople was occupied by British, French, Italian, and Greek forces. On 19 January 1919, the Greek Orthodox Christian military priest Eleftherios Noufrakis performed an unauthorized Divine Liturgy in the Hagia Sophia, the only such instance since the 1453 fall of Constantinople.[128] The anti-occupation Sultanahmet demonstrations were held next to Hagia Sophia from March to May 1919. In Greece, the 500 drachma banknotes issued in 1923 featured Hagia Sophia.[129]

In 1935, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, transformed the building into a museum. During the Second World War, the minarets of the museum housed MG 08 machine guns.[130] The carpet and the layer of mortar underneath were removed and marble floor decorations such as the omphalion appeared for the first time since the Fossatis' restoration,[131] when the white plaster covering many of the mosaics had been removed. Due to neglect, the condition of the structure continued to deteriorate, prompting the World Monuments Fund (WMF) to include the Hagia Sophia in their 1996 and 1998 Watch Lists. During this time period, the building's copper roof had cracked, causing water to leak down over the fragile frescoes and mosaics. Moisture entered from below as well. Rising ground water increased the level of humidity within the monument, creating an unstable environment for stone and paint. The WMF secured a series of grants from 1997 to 2002 for the restoration of the dome. The first stage of work involved the structural stabilization and repair of the cracked roof, which was undertaken with the participation of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The second phase, the preservation of the dome's interior, afforded the opportunity to employ and train young Turkish conservators in the care of mosaics. By 2006, the WMF project was complete, though many areas of Hagia Sophia continue to require significant stability improvement, restoration, and conservation.[132]

In 2014, Hagia Sophia was the second most visited museum in Turkey, attracting almost 3.3 million visitors annually.[133]

While use of the complex as a place of worship (mosque or church) was strictly prohibited,[134] in 1991 the Turkish government allowed the allocation of a pavilion in the museum complex (Ayasofya Müzesi Hünkar Kasrı) for use as a prayer room, and, since 2013, two of the museum's minarets had been used for voicing the call to prayer (the ezan) regularly.[135][136]

From the early 2010s, several campaigns and government high officials, notably Turkey's deputy prime minister Bülent Arınç in November 2013, demanded the Hagia Sophia be converted back into a mosque.[137][138][139] In 2015, Pope Francis publicly acknowledged the Armenian genocide, which is officially denied in Turkey. In response, the mufti of Ankara, Mefail Hızlı, said he believed the Pope's remarks would accelerate the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque.[140]

On 1 July 2016, Muslim prayers were held again in the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years.[141] That November, a Turkish NGO, the Association for the Protection of Historic Monuments and the Environment, filed a lawsuit for converting the museum into a mosque.[142] The court decided it should stay as a 'monument museum'.[143][better source needed] In October 2016, Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) appointed, for the first time in 81 years, a designated imam, Önder Soy, to the Hagia Sophia mosque (Ayasofya Camii Hünkar Kasrı), located at the Hünkar Kasrı, a pavilion for the sultans' private ablutions. Since then, the adhan has been regularly called out from the Hagia Sophia's all four minarets five times a day.[135][136][144]

On 13 May 2017, a large group of people, organized by the Anatolia Youth Association (AGD), gathered in front of Hagia Sophia and prayed the morning prayer with a call for the re-conversion of the museum into a mosque.[145] On 21 June 2017 the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) organized a special programme, broadcast live by state-run television TRT, which included the recitation of the Quran and prayers in Hagia Sophia, to mark the Laylat al-Qadr.[146]

Church of Constantius II

The first church on the site was known as the Magna Ecclesia (Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία, Megálē Ekklēsíā, 'Great Church')[21][22] because of its size compared to the sizes of the contemporary churches in the city.[13] According to the Chronicon Paschale, the church was consecrated on 15 February 360, during the reign of the emperor Constantius II (r. 337–361) by the Arian bishop Eudoxius of Antioch.[23][24] It was built next to the area where the Great Palace was being developed. According to the 5th-century ecclesiastical historian Socrates of Constantinople, the emperor Constantius had c. 346 "constructed the Great Church alongside that called Irene which because it was too small, the emperor's father [Constantine] had enlarged and beautified".[25][23] A tradition which is not older than the 7th or 8th century reports that the edifice was built by Constantius' father, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337).[23] Hesychius of Miletus wrote that Constantine built Hagia Sophia with a wooden roof and removed 427 (mostly pagan) statues from the site.[26] The 12th-century chronicler Joannes Zonaras reconciles the two opinions, writing that Constantius had repaired the edifice consecrated by Eusebius of Nicomedia, after it had collapsed.[23] Since Eusebius was the bishop of Constantinople from 339 to 341, and Constantine died in 337, it seems that the first church was erected by Constantius.[23]

The nearby Hagia Irene ("Holy Peace") church was completed earlier and served as cathedral until the Great Church was completed. Besides Hagia Irene, there is no record of major churches in the city-centre before the late 4th century.[24] Rowland Mainstone argued the 4th-century church was not yet known as Hagia Sophia.[27] Though its name as the 'Great Church' implies that it was larger than other Constantinopolitan churches, the only other major churches of the 4th century were the Church of St Mocius, which lay outside the Constantinian walls and was perhaps attached to a cemetery, and the Church of the Holy Apostles.[24]

The church itself is known to have had a timber roof, curtains, columns, and an entrance that faced west.[24] It likely had a narthex and is described as being shaped like a Roman circus.[28] This may mean that it had a U-shaped plan like the basilicas of San Marcellino e Pietro and Sant'Agnese fuori le mura in Rome.[24] However, it may also have been a more conventional three-, four-, or five-aisled basilica, perhaps resembling the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.[24] The building was likely preceded by an atrium, as in the later churches on the site.[29]

According to Ken Dark and Jan Kostenec, a further remnant of the 4th century basilica may exist in a wall of alternating brick and stone banded masonry immediately to the west of the Justinianic church.[30] The top part of the wall is constructed with bricks stamped with brick-stamps dating from the 5th century, but the lower part is of constructed with bricks typical of the 4th century.[30] This wall was probably part of the propylaeum at the west front of both the Constantinian and Theodosian Great Churches.[30]

The building was accompanied by a baptistery and a skeuophylakion.[24] A hypogeum, perhaps with an martyrium above it, was discovered before 1946, and the remnants of a brick wall with traces of marble revetment were identified in 2004.[30] The hypogeum was a tomb which may have been part of the 4th-century church or may have been from the pre-Constantinian city of Byzantium.[30] The skeuophylakion is said by Palladius to have had a circular floor plan, and since some U-shaped basilicas in Rome were funerary churches with attached circular mausolea (the Mausoleum of Constantina and the Mausoleum of Helena), it is possible it originally had a funerary function, though by 405 its use had changed.[30] A later account credited a woman called Anna with donating the land on which the church was built in return for the right to be buried there.[30]

Excavations on the western side of the site of the first church under the propylaeum wall reveal that the first church was built atop a road about 8 m (26 ft) wide.[30] According to early accounts, the first Hagia Sophia was built on the site of an ancient pagan temple,[31][32][33] although there are no artefacts to confirm this.[34]

The Patriarch of Constantinople John Chrysostom came into a conflict with Empress Aelia Eudoxia, wife of the emperor Arcadius (r. 383–408), and was sent into exile on 20 June 404. During the subsequent riots, this first church was largely burnt down.[23] Palladius noted that the 4th-century skeuophylakion survived the fire.[35] According to Dark and Kostenec, the fire may only have affected the main basilica, leaving the surrounding ancillary buildings intact.[35]

History of Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is a work that was constructed three times in the same location. Today’s Hagia Sophia is known as the “Third Hagia Sophia”. The first construction of Hagia Sophia started during the reign of Constantine I, who accepted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. This building, which was constructed as a basilica with a wooden roof on the first of the seven hills of Istanbul and was called "The Great Church" at the time, was opened during the reign of Constantine II in 360. There is no remnant from this structure, which was largely devastated as a result of a fire that broke out in the revolt that started in 404.

The second Hagia Sophia was built by Emperor Theodosius II on the first one and opened to worship in 415. This building, which was also constructed as a basilica and with a wooden roof, was devastated by the rebels in the Nika Revolt against Emperor Justinian in 532.

Just after the riots, Emperor Justinian decided to build a larger and more glorious Hagia Sophia than the first two. The third Hagia Sophia was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 532-537.

Hagia Sophia, which was used as the Imperial Church of Eastern Rome, was frequently devastated due to riots, wars, and natural disasters throughout history. Hagia Sophia experienced one of the biggest destructions during the 4th Crusade in 1204 when the city was invaded. The Crusaders looted Hagia Sophia along with the whole city. During the Latin occupation that lasted from 1204 to 1261 in Istanbul, Hagia Sophia was converted into a cathedral attached to the Roman Catholic Church.

Repairs were made to try and preserve the Hagia Sophia, which was seriously damaged after the Eastern Roman administration was re-established in Istanbul. However, the repairs were insufficient and in 1346 the eastern archivolt of the Hagia Sophia and a part of the dome collapsed.

In fact, Hagia Sophia experienced the darkest period of its history from the Latin invasion to the conquest of Istanbul. Hagia Sophia, which was destroyed twice and built for the third time, ruined by wars and revolts for centuries, and the parts of which collapsed due to neglect and architectural errors, remained under the permanent threat of collapse until the conquest of Istanbul by Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan. In addition, the sociological and symbolic meaning of the temple was greatly damaged due to the schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

The Ottomans took great care of the Hagia Sophia Mosque, which they acknowledged and appreciated as the symbol of the conquest, maintained and repaired it continuously, and turned the mosque into a much more robust structure starting from the rule of Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan. In particular, the additions and arrangements made by Sinan the Architect to Hagia Sophia played a major role in the survival of this heritage of humanity.

Thus, it is stated in the historical records that Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan, who went to Hagia Sophia right after the conquest, was saddened by the status of the mosque and recited the following verses:

“Perdedâri mîkoned ber kasr-i Kayser ankebut Bûm novbet mîzened der tarem-i Efrâsiyâb”

(“A spider spins its web in the palace of the Kaiser, An owl hoots in the towers of Afrasiab")

Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan, who endowed the Hagia Sophia Mosque as his own charity and secured the maintenance-repair costs by providing the income from several properties, started the educational activities by building a madrasah adjacent to the mosque. The first minaret of Hagia Sophia was built of wood during the rule of Fatih Sultan Mehmed Khan. This minaret, which existed for many years, was removed during the major repair in 1574. The second minaret of the Hagia Sophia Mosque was built of bricks during the rule of Sultan Bayezid II.

One of the Ottoman sultans who showed the greatest interest in Hagia Sophia was Sultan Selim II. After the building showed signs of fatigue, Selim II Khan appointed Sinan the Architect for the maintenance and repair of Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia, whose domes and walls collapsed many times during the Eastern Roman period, never collapsed again after the renovations of Sinan the Architect despite many great earthquakes in Istanbul. The tradition of building tombs for the sultans in the graveyard of Hagia Sophia Complex started with the first tomb built by Sinan the Architect for Sultan Selim II.

From the time of Fatih Sultan Mehmet Khan, every sultan strived to beautify the Hagia Sophia even more, and the Hagia Sophia was transformed into an entire complex with structures such as mihrab, minbar, rostrum, minarets, sultan's office, shadirvans (fountain providing water for ritual ablutions), madrasah, library, and soup kitchen. In addition, great importance was attached to the interior decorations of the Hagia Sophia Mosque during the Ottoman period. Hagia Sophia was adorned with the most elegant examples of Turkish arts such as calligraphy and tile art and the temple gained new aesthetic values. Thus, Hagia Sophia was not only converted into a mosque but also this common heritage of humanity was preserved and improved.

Hagia Sophia, which was converted into a mosque with the conquest and served as a mosque for 481 years, was closed off to the public after the restoration works started in the 1930s. Then it was turned into a museum with a Cabinet Decree dated November 24, 1934. The Council of State reversed the Cabinet Decree in question on July 10, 2020. The Hagia Sophia Mosque was reopened to worship with the Presidential Decree No. 2729 signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and promulgated immediately after.

As the Cabinet Decree dated 24/11/1934 and numbered 2/1589 on the conversion of the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Fatih District of Istanbul Province into a museum was annulled by the Decision of the Tenth Chamber of the Council of State dated 2/7/2020 and numbered E:2016/16015, K:2020/2595, it was decided that the administration of the Hagia Sophia Mosque was transferred to the Presidency of Religious Affairs in accordance with Article 35 of the Law on the Establishment and Duties of the Presidency of Religious Affairs No. 633 dated 22/6/1965.

Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN | PRESIDENT

Hagia Sophia (tiếng Hy Lạp: Ἁγία Σοφία, "Sự khôn ngoan của Thiên Chúa", tiếng Latinh: Sancta Sapientia, tiếng Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ: Ayasofya) ban đầu là một Vương cung thánh đường Chính thống giáo Đông phương, sau là thánh đường Hồi giáo, và nay là một viện bảo tàng ở Istanbul, Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ. Đặc biệt nổi tiếng vì vòm trần lớn, tòa nhà này được xem là hình ảnh mẫu mực của kiến trúc Byzantine, và được coi là đã "thay đổi lịch sử của kiến trúc".[1] Đây từng là nhà thờ lớn nhất thế giới trong gần một ngàn năm, cho đến khi Nhà thờ chính tòa Sevilla hoàn thành vào năm 1520.

Tòa nhà hiện nay vốn được xây dựng làm nhà thờ từ năm 532 đến năm 537 theo lệnh của Hoàng đế Byzantine Justinian, và đã là Nhà thờ Sự khôn ngoan của Thiên Chúa thứ 3 được xây dựng tại địa điểm này (hai nhà thờ trước đã bị phá hủy bởi quân phiến loạn). Tòa nhà được thiết kế bởi hai kiến trúc sư Isidorus xứ Miletus và Anthemius xứ Tralles. Nhà thờ có một bộ sưu tập các thánh tích và có một bức tường tranh bằng bạc dài 15 m. Đây là nhà thờ trung tâm của Giáo hội Chính thống giáo Đông phương và trụ sở của Thượng phụ Đại kết thành Constantinopolis trong gần 1000 năm.

Năm 1453, kinh đô Constantinopolis bị đế quốc Ottoman chiếm. Vua Mehmed II lệnh biến tòa nhà thành một nhà thờ Hồi giáo. Chuông khánh, bàn thờ, tường tranh bị gỡ bỏ, nhiều phần nền khảm tranh mosaic bị trát vữa đè lên. Các chi tiết kiến trúc Hồi giáo, chẳng hạn mihrab, minbar, và 4 minaret ở bên ngoài, được xây thêm trong thời của các Ottoman. Tòa nhà là nơi thờ phụng của Hồi giáo cho đến năm 1935, khi nó được chính phủ Cộng hòa Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ chuyển thành một viện bảo tàng.

Trong gần 500 năm, Hagia Sophia là thánh đường Hồi giáo chính của Istanbul, làm mẫu hình cho nhiều thánh đường Hồi giáo Ottoman khác như Thánh đường Hồi giáo Vua Ahmed, Thánh đường Hồi giáo Şehzade, Thánh đường Hồi giáo Süleymaniye, và Thánh đường Hồi giáo Rüstem Pasha.

Tuy đôi khi nhà thờ được gọi là Sancta Sophia theo tiếng Latinh, giống với cách gọi dành cho Thánh Sophia, nhưng sophia là cách chuyển tự Latinh từ tiếng Hy Lạp, thuật từ Sophia có nghĩa là trí tuệ hoặc sự khôn ngoan. Tên đầy đủ bằng tiếng Hy Lạp là Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, nghĩa là Đền Sự khôn ngoan của Thiên Chúa.

Hagia Sophia là một trong những tòa nhà thuộc khu vực lịch sử Istanbul được UNESCO công nhận là di sản thế giới.

Hiện tại không có bằng chứng hay dấu tích nào cho biết ngôi đền thứ nhất (gọi là Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία (Megálē Ekklēsíā, "Đền thờ lớn") đã được xây dựng chính xác tại đâu, có lẽ chính tại Istanbul hay "Magna Ecclesia" (một khu vực cổ ở Mỹ Latin).[2]

Trong quá khứ, đền thứ nhất từng là nơi thờ phụng của các tôn giáo Đa thần.[3] Ngôi đền được xây gần cung điện hoàng gia và cạnh bên ngôi đền Hagia Eirene[4]. Ngày 15 tháng 2, năm 360, hoàng đế Constantius II cho khánh thành Hagia Sophia. Và từ đây, cả hai ngôi đền (Hagia Sophia và Hagia Eirene) được dùng để tôn thờ đế chế Byzantine.

Sở dĩ người hiện đại biết đến sự có mặt của Ngôi đền thứ nhất là nhờ những ghi chép của Socrates của dân Constantinopolis[5], ngôi đền dùng tôn thờ hoàng đế Constantine Đại đế. Kiến trúc ngôi đền dựa theo kiến trúc truyền thống Latin với những kiệt tác hội họa, hàng hàng cột chống trần và mái vòm gỗ.

Đền thứ nhất vẫn đang chờ xem xét phong tặng danh hiệu kì quan thế giới.

Cái tên "Megálē Ekklēsíā" đã từng được sử dụng trong một khoảng thời gian khá dài trước khi bị thay thế bởi cái tên "Hagia Sophia" trong cuộc xâm lăng của người Byzantine năm 1453.

Ngày 20 tháng 6 năm 404, Thị trưởng của Constantinople, John Chrysostom, gây mâu thuẫn với nữ chúa Aelia Eudoxia, vợ hoàng đế Arcadius. Ngay sau đó, ông bị bắt và bị đày đi xa xứ. Trong cuộc nổi loạn của dân chúng, phần lớn Ngôi đền thứ nhất bị thiêu cháy. Và hoàng đế Theodosius II ra lệnh xây ngôi đền mới. Ngôi đền thứ hai được xây dựng, khánh thành ngày 10 tháng 10 năm 405. Một nhà thờ thứ hai được xây theo lệnh của Theodosius II, ông khánh thành nó vào ngày 10 tháng 10 năm 405. Sự náo loạn của lễ hội Nika Revolt đã dẫn đến sự tàn phá Ngôi đền thứ hai, ngôi đền đã bị thiêu thành tro bụi chỉ trong hai ngày 13-14 tháng 1 năm 532.

Những phiến đá hoa cương là những phế tích còn tồn tại đến ngày hôm nay, chứng minh sự tồn tại của Ngôi đền thứ hai, và hiện tại chúng đang được lưu giữ trong khuôn viên khu đền hiện tại (Ngôi đền thứ ba). Những phiến đá này là một phần cổng của ngôi đền xưa; được A.M. Schneider khai quật trong cái sân nhỏ nằm ở hướng Tây năm 1935.

Ngay sau khi đế quốc Ottoman (do Muslim Millet dẫn đầu) xâm chiếm Constantinopolis (Istanbul) vào năm 1453, Hagia Sophia bị biến thành đền thờ Hồi giáo như là chiến lợi phẩm của cuộc xâm chiếm. Lúc đó, đền thờ đã hư hỏng rất nặng, nhiều cánh cửa đã hoai mục hay gãy vỡ. Những hư hỏng này được miêu tả rất chi tiết trong quyển ghi chép của nhiều du khách xưa, như Pero Tafur người thành Córdoba, Tây Ban Nha[6] và Cristoforo Buondelmonti người thành Florence, Ý.[7] Vua Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ Mehmed II đã cho trùng tu khu di tích này và lập tức biến nó thành đền thờ Hồi giáo. Sau đó, vua Bayezid II xây thêm một cái tháp để thay thế cái tháp cũ vua cha đã xây.

Vào thế kỉ 16, vua Suleiman I (1520-1566) đem về hai ngọn đèn cầy khổng lồ chiếm được trong cuộc chinh phạt Hungary. Chúng được đặt hai bên hông của mihrab (một khoảng trống trên tường biểu trưng cho Kaaba ở Mecca và để chỉ hướng cúi đầu lạy. Dưới triều vua Selim II (1566-1574), ngôi đền lại xuất hiện thêm nhiều dấu hiệu hư hỏng, và lại được mở rộng trùng tu, bổ sung thêm nhiều quần thể kiến trúc do kiến trúc sư đại tài người Ottoman Sinan chỉ huy xây dựng, ông được xem là kĩ sư vĩ đại với những công trình chống lại động đất. Ngoài ra, để kéo dài tuổi thọ cho kiến trúc lịch sử Byzantine này, Sinan đã xây thêm hai tháp trụ khổng lồ ở phía cực Tây của công trình, và ở lăng Selim II phía Đông nam năm 1574. Hai lăng mộ của các vua Murad III và Mehmed III được xây cạnh bên đền thờ trong thập niên 1600.

Năm 1935, Tổng thống đầu tiên và là người thiết lập nền Cộng hoà ở Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, cho biến công trình này thành viện bảo tàng. Người ta dỡ bỏ đệm trải sàn và những tran trí bằng đá hoa cương trên sàn xuất hiện lại lần đầu tiên qua nhiều thế kỷ, cùng lúc đó vôi trăng che kín các tranh khảm đá quý cũng được gỡ ra.[8]

Xây dựng dưới thời hoàng đế Justinian tại Constantinople, do hai KTS Anthemius de Tralles và Isidorius de Miletus thiết kế. Trung tâm nhà thờ là mặt bằng hình vuông (75,6m x 68,4m), phía trên bao phủ bằng vòm bán cầu đường kính 33m (cao 51m tính từ nền) với cấu trúc vòm buồm.Tại phần tambour có 40 cửa sổ lấy ánh sáng.

Kích thước và cấu trúc của mái vòm là một kiệt tác về thiết kế, và tạo một sự đột phá về kết cấu, trở thành một thành tựu rực rỡ mà kiến trúc Byzantine đã đạt được.

Từ 1453 sau khi nhà thờ được đổi chức năng thành nhà thờ hồi giáo. Người Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ đã cho xây thêm 4 tháp nhọn Hồi Giáo ở 4 góc gọi là các tháp Minaret, tạo nên cảnh quan nhà thờ như ngày nay.

Nhà thờ Hagia Sophia đã là nhà thờ Cơ đốc giáo bề thế nhất và đẹp nhất ở phương Đông, là nhân chứng bền vững của lịch sử kiến trúc tôn giáo.

Wikimedia Commons có thêm hình ảnh và phương tiện truyền tải về

tirto.id - Kontroversi akibat putusan Presiden Recep Tayyip Erdogan mengubah Hagia Sophia menjadi masjid masih terus bergaung. Alih fungsi Hagia Sophia dari museum menjadi masjid memantik polemik di dunia internasional.

Sebagian negara yang mayoritas berpenduduk muslim mendukung keputusan otoritas Turki untuk mengubah fungsi Hagia Sophia menjadi masjid. Sejumlah organisasi muslim, seperti Uni Magrib Arab (The Magrib Arab Union), organisasi Ikhwanul Muslimin, juga dengan bersemangat mendukung langkah rezim Presiden Erdogan itu.

Pihak-pihak itu menyebut momen tersebut sebagai "langkah sejarah" atau "peristiwa bersejarah" dalam Islam, demikian dikutip kantor berita Turki, Anadolu Agency.

Di sisi lain, sebagaimana dilansir dari Reuters, kritik atas keputusan itu juga tak kalah banyaknya dari petinggi negara dan pemimpin agama dunia. Bahkan, Paus Fransiskus mengaku sangat sedih atas perubahan status Hagia Sophia.

Polemik tersebut tidak terlepas dari sejarah panjang Hagia Sophia yang telah melewati masa lebih dari 1,5 milenium.

Selama 15 abad terakhir, Hagia Sophia menjadi saksi bisu sejarah berlangsungnya transisi rezim yang menguasai Konstantinopel (kini Istanbul), mulai dari pagan, Kekaisaran Byzantium penganut Katolik Ortodoks, Kesultanan Ottoman (Utsmaniyah) sampai era Turki modern.

Secara garis besar, sejarah panjang Hagia Sophia dapat dipilah menjadi empat fase. Pada empat fase itu, alih fungsi Hagia Sophia terjadi bergantung pada siapa rezim yang berkuasa di Istanbul.

Hagia Sophia pada Era Kekaisaran Bizantium

Dalam bahasa Turki, Hagia Sophia disebut Ayasofya, dan di bahasa Latin: Sancta Sophia. Hagia Sophia juga pernah dikenal sebagai Gereja Kebijaksanaan Suci (Church of the Holy Wisdom) dan Gereja Kebijaksanaan Ilahi (Church of the Divine Wisdom).

Menurut ensiklopedia Britannica, bangunan Hagia Sophia pertama kali didirikan di atas pondasi atau tempat kuil pagan pada 325 Masehi, atas perintah Kaisar Konstantinus I.

Putranya, Konstantius II, lalu menjadikan bangunan ini sebagai gereja Ortodoks pada 360 masehi. Hagia Sophia kemudian menjadi gereja tempat para penguasa dimahkotai dan menjadi katedral paling besar yang beroperasi sepanjang periode Kekaisaran Bizantium.

Hagia Sophia sekaligus menjadi saksi sekaligus korban pusaran konflik di tengah pelbagai kejadian yang menerpa Kekaisaran Bizantium. Hagia Sophia juga pernah direparasi secara besar-besaran beberapa kali pada era ini.

Sebagaimana dilansir dari History, Hagia Sophia semula hanyalah bangunan beratap kayu dan tak semegah yang sekarang.

Pada tahun 404 masehi, Hagia Sophia sempat terbakar akibat kerusuhan karena konflik politik di kalangan keluarga Kaisar Arkadios yang kemudian menjadi penguasa Bizantium pada 395-408 masehi.

Selepas Arkadios mangkat, penerusnya, Kaisar Theodosis II membangun struktur kedua di Hagia Sophia. Di bangunan ini, ditambahkan lima nave dan jalan masuk khas gereja dengan atap terbuat dari kayu.

Lalu, sebagaimana dicatat Encyclopedia Britannica, pembangunan gereja Hagia Sophia berlanjut di masa kekuasaan Justinan I (532 M). Perbaikan dilakukan karena Hagia Sophia rusak akibat rusuh yang terjadi saat revolusi Nikka.

Setelah kerusuhan yang melanda Konstantinopel itu, Justinian I memerintahkan arsitek terkenal pada masanya, Isidoros (Milet) dan Anthemios (Tralles), untuk mendirikan ulang bangunan Hagia Sophia. Pada masa Kaisar Justinian I inilah yang paling masyhur diakui sebagai fondasi awal dari bangunan Hagia Sophia yang sekarang demikian terkenal.

Kubah yang menaungi Hagia Sophia juga diklaim sebagai kubah bangunan terbesar kedua selepas Gereja Pantheon di Roma. Bangunan ini dianggap warisan arsitektur terpenting dari era Bizantium dan merupakan bagian dari monumen warisan dunia.

Hagia Sophia pada Era Kesultanan Ottoman

Pada 1453, era Kekaisaran Bizantium berakhir karena ditaklukkan oleh Sultan Mehmet/Mehmed II dari Kekaisaran Ottoman. Setelah Sultan Mehmed II menaklukkan Konstantinopel, status Hagia Sophia dikonversi menjadi masjid.

Nama Hagia Sophia masih dipertahankan oleh Sultan Mehmed II. Sebagaimana arti kata sophia dalam bahasa Yunani adalah kebijaksanaan, maka arti lengkap dari Hagia Sophia adalah tempat suci bagi Tuhan. Sultan Mehmed II mempertahankan kesucian Hagia Sophia dan hanya mengubah status fungsinya dari gereja menjadi tempat ibadah umat Islam.

Salah satu alasan Sultan Mehmed II: "Tuhan yang disembah umat Kristen dan Islam adalah Tuhan yang sama," tulis Robert Mark dan Ahmet S. Cakmak yang dikutip dari Diegesis di Hagia Sophia from the Age of Justinian to the Present (1992: 201).

Saat berubah menjadi masjid di era Mehmed II, banyak mosaik dan lukisan bercorak Kristen, yang menghiasai bangunan Hagia Sophia, ditutupi dan diplester. Seniman kaligrafi terkenal pada masa itu, Kazasker Mustafa İzzet, kemudian mengguratkan tulisan Allah SWT, Nabi Muhammad SAW, empat khalifah pertama, dan dua cucu Rasulullah SAW, di beberapa bagian interior Hagia Sophia.

Pada masa Kesultanan Ottoman, struktur bangunan Hagia Sophia memperoleh sentuhan arsitektur Islam. Misalnya, mihrab yang kemudian dibangun, hingga pendirian empat menara yang digunakan untuk melantunkan Adzan. Bangunan seperti madrasah, perpustakaan hingga dapur umum juga melengkapi Hagia Sophia pada masa Ottoman.

Pada era Kekaisaran Ottoman, bangunan Hagia Sophia sempat difungsikan menjadi masjid selama 482 tahun.

Hagia Sophia pada Era Pemerintahan Kemal Ataturk

Selepas Kekaisaran Ottoman bubar dan Turki menjadi negara republik, Hagia Sophia pun kembali beralih fungsi. Pendiri dan presiden pertama Republik Turki, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk mengubah status Hagia Sophia menjadi museum.

Setelah Hagia Sophia menjadi museum, dilakukan restorasi mosaik-mosaik kuno di bangunan ini dan plester penutupnya dibuka. Lantas, selepas plester ornamennya dibuka, tampaklah lukisan Bunda Maria dan bayi Yesus, yang ternyata berjejer dengan kaligrafi Allah dan Muhammad SAW.

Hagia Sophia kemudian diakui sebagai salah satu dari situs Warisan Dunia UNESCO yang disebut Area Bersejarah Istanbul, sejak tahun 1985.

Hagia Sophia pada Era Pemerintahan Erdogan

Jalan panjang Hagia Sophia saat ini memutar lagi. Karena putusan pengadilan administrasi utama Turki, status Hagia Sophia sebagai museum dicabut pada 10 Juli 2020.

Pada masa pemerintahan Presiden Recep Tayyip Erdogan ini, Hagia Sophia diubah status fungsinya kembali menjadi masjid.

Perubahan ini menuai kontroversi. Saking kontroversialnya, Perdana Menteri Kyriakos Mitsotakis dari Yunani menuding keputusan itu sebagai penghinaan terhadap karakter ekumenis dari Hagia Sophia.

Sementara itu, UNESCO memberi peringatan bahwa perubahan status Hagia Sophia harus ditinjau oleh komite badan PBB tersebut. Oleh karena Hagia Sophia sejak 1985 dianggap bagian dari Situs Warisan Dunia, pengubahan status bangunan ini harus diberitahukan terlebih dahulu dan melalui proses peninjauan UNESCO.

"Penting untuk menghindari keputusan apa pun sebelum berunding dengan UNESCO, yang akan memengaruhi akses fisik ke situs, struktur bangunan, properti yang dapat dipindahkan, atau manajemen situs bersejarah," kata Ernesto Ottone, Asisten Direktur UNESCO belum lama ini.

Menurut UNESCO, tindakan-tindakan semacam itu bisa dianggap pelanggaran aturan yang sudah tertera di Konvensi Warisan Dunia 1972.

Hagia Sophia Experience Museum is a must-visit destination for anyone interested in history, culture, and art. Located in the heart of Istanbul, this museum takes visitors on a journey through time and showcases the beauty and complexity of one of the world's most significant landmarks.

Whether you're a history buff, an art lover, or simply someone who wants to experience one of the world's most awe-inspiring landmarks, Hagia Sophia Experience Museum is a must-visit destination. Book your tickets now and discover the wonders of this remarkable museum for yourself.

Bacaan Setahun: Mzm. 111 Ayb. 28-29 Kol. 4

Dan Akupun berkata kepadamu: Engkau adalah Petrus dan di atas batu karang ini Aku akan mendirikan jemaat-Ku, dan alam maut tidak akan menguasainya. Kepadamu akan Kuberikan kunci Kerajaan Sorga. Apa yang kauikat di dunia ini akan terikat di sorga dan apa yang kaulepaskan di dunia ini akan terlepas di sorga.” Matius 16: 18-19

Nama panjang dari Gereja Ortodok Yunani yang dibangun jaman Bizanthium adalah, Naos tēs Hagias tou Theou Sophias, “Tempat Peziarahan Kebijaksaan Suci Tuhan”. Di pendekkan menjadi “Hagia Sophia“, dalam bahasa Yunani Hagia artinya suci, Sophia artinya kebijaksanaan atau hikmat. Dari namanya Gereja ini dibangun untuk menggambarkan kesucian dan kebijaksanaan Tuhan. Dalam sejarah, Hagia Sophia bagai gadis suci, pintar dan cantik yang terus menjadi perebutan egoisitas kesombongan nafsu keagamaan dan kekuasaan. Dibangun pada abad ke enam, sebagai Gereja Ortodok Yunani (537-1204), dan direbut pasukan Salib dan dijadikan Gereja Katolik Roma (1204-1261), lalu direbut kembali oleh Kekaisaran Bizanthium dan kembali menjadi Gereja Ortodok Yunani (1261-1453 ). Setelah itu emporium Turki Ottoman menaklukan Bizanthium, Hagia Sophia dijadikan Masjid (1453-1931). Bapak modernisasi Turki, Kemal Ataturk menjadikan Hagia Sophia Museum (1935-2020). Bulan Juli tahun ini Presiden Turki Endorgan menjadikan kembali si Gadis Cantik Hagia Sophia sebagai Mesjid. Dalam terminologi Kristen, Gereja memang diibaratkan mempelai Kristus yaitu gadis suci dan bijak. Namun arti Gereja sesungguhnya bukanlah gedung atau institusi gereja tetapi kumpulan orang yang mendapat pewahyuan (hikmat dari Sorga) bahwa Yesus adalah Mesias. Orang-orang ini disebut EKKLESIA (asal kata Gereja), yaitu sebutan kepada orang yang mendapat hikmat dan percaya Yesus adalah Mesias, kepada EKKLESIA diberikan kunci Kerjaan Sorga dan alam maut tidak menguasainya. (Matius 16:18-19) Sejarah manusia selalu diramaikan oleh drama kolosal perebutan kekuasaan baik kekuasaan agama ataupun kekuasaan pemerintahan. Sudah seharusnya diusia tua sejarah peradaban manusia menjadi semakin suci hati dan bijak. Sampai hari ini manusia masih “dibutakan” hati dan pikirannya, yaitu bahwa mengagungkan Tuhan adalah melebarkan kekuasaan atas nama Tuhan dalam bentuk kekuasaan fisik. Bahkan saat ini, ketika Tuhan menunjukkan “kerapuhan” kekuasaan manusia melalui pandemi corona, manusia belum juga belajar menjadi bijak. Kekotoran hati manusia berakibat manusia hanya bisa melihat hal yang fisik, yaitu yang menang adalah yang berkuasa, yang menang adalah yang menaklukkan. Kepada seorang perempuan Samaria yang tidak terpandang secara agama – ia pernah kawin cerai dengan lima laki laki, dan masih berselingkuh dengan suami orang, Yesus menerangkan tentang arti “menyembah“. Yaitu bukan menyembah di gunung atau di Bait Allah di Yerusalem tetapi di dalam ROH dan KEBENARAN. (Yohanes 4:23) Hari ini saat banyak orang dipaksa tak bisa menyembah di gedung gereja karena corona, seharusnya kita disadarkan bahwa Tuhan justru hadir ketika baju keagamaan kita yang mempesona harus di’tanggal’kan. Kehadiran Tuhan sesungguhnya bukan di katedral atau di gedung gereja kolosal kebanggaan kita, tetapi di dalam Roh (Hagia) dan Kebenaran (Sophia). Anda mengerti? (DD)

Questions : 1. Apa arti gereja sebenarnya? 2. Benarkah berbakti yang afdol adalah berbakti di gereja yang keramat dan bersejarah?

Values : Bagi warga Kerajaan sikap hati yang benar adalah hal terpenting dalam penyembahan, tempat ibadah hanya fasilitas bukan tempat yang menentukan diterimanya penyembahan.

Taat beribadah tanpa berakhlak benar seperti berbaju mewah tapi tak pernah mandi.

th-century restoration

Many mosaics were uncovered in the 1930s by a team from the Byzantine Institute of America led by Thomas Whittemore. The team chose to let a number of simple cross images remain covered by plaster but uncovered all major mosaics found.

Because of its long history as both a church and a mosque, a particular challenge arises in the restoration process. Christian iconographic mosaics can be uncovered, but often at the expense of important and historic Islamic art. Restorers have attempted to maintain a balance between both Christian and Islamic cultures. In particular, much controversy rests upon whether the Islamic calligraphy on the dome of the cathedral should be removed, in order to permit the underlying Pantocrator mosaic of Christ as Master of the World to be exhibited (assuming the mosaic still exists).[255]

The Hagia Sophia has been a victim of natural disasters that have caused deterioration to the buildings structure and walls. The deterioration of the Hagia Sophia's walls can be directly attributed to salt crystallization. The crystallization of salt is due to an intrusion of rainwater that causes the Hagia Sophia's deteriorating inner and outer walls. Diverting excess rainwater is the main solution to the deteriorating walls at the Hagia Sophia.[256]

Built between 532 and 537, a subsurface structure under the Hagia Sophia has been under investigation, using LaCoste-Romberg gravimeters to determine the depth of the subsurface structure and to discover other hidden cavities beneath the Hagia Sophia. The hidden cavities have also acted as a support system against earthquakes. With these findings using the LaCoste-Romberg gravimeters, it was also discovered that the Hagia Sophia's foundation is built on a slope of natural rock.[257]

The Imperial Gate mosaic is located in the tympanum above that gate, which was used only by the emperors when entering the church. Based on style analysis, it has been dated to the late 9th or early 10th century. The emperor with a nimbus or halo could possibly represent emperor Leo VI the Wise or his son Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus bowing down before Christ Pantocrator, seated on a jewelled throne, giving his blessing and holding in his left hand an open book.[258] The text on the book reads: "Peace be with you" (John 20, John 20:19, 20:26) and "I am the light of the world" (John 8, John 8:12). On each side of Christ's shoulders is a circular medallion with busts: on his left the Archangel Gabriel, holding a staff, on his right his mother Mary.[259]

Reversion to mosque (2018–present)

Since 2018, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had talked of reverting the status of the Hagia Sophia back to a mosque, a move seen to be very popularly accepted by the religious populace whom Erdoğan was attempting to persuade.[147] On 31 March 2018 Erdoğan recited the first verse of the Quran in the Hagia Sophia, dedicating the prayer to the "souls of all who left us this work as inheritance, especially Istanbul's conqueror," strengthening the political movement to make the Hagia Sophia a mosque once again, which would reverse Atatürk's measure of turning the Hagia Sophia into a secular museum.[148] In March 2019 Erdoğan said that he would change the status of Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque,[149] adding that it had been a "very big mistake" to turn it into a museum.[150] As a UNESCO World Heritage site, this change would require approval from UNESCO's World Heritage Committee.[151] In late 2019 Erdoğan's office took over the administration and upkeep of the nearby Topkapı Palace Museum, transferring responsibility for the site from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism by presidential decree.[152][153][154]

In 2020, Turkey's government celebrated the 567th anniversary of the Conquest of Constantinople with an Islamic prayer in Hagia Sophia. Erdoğan said during a televised broadcast "Al-Fath surah will be recited and prayers will be done at Hagia Sophia as part of conquest festival".[155] In May, during the anniversary events, passages from the Quran were read in the Hagia Sophia. Greece condemned this action, while Turkey in response accused Greece of making "futile and ineffective statements".[156] In June, the head of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) said that "we would be very happy to open Hagia Sophia for worship" and that if it happened "we will provide our religious services as we do in all our mosques".[142] On 25 June, John Haldon, president of the International Association of Byzantine Studies, wrote an open letter to Erdoğan asking that he "consider the value of keeping the Aya Sofya as a museum".[157]

On 10 July 2020, the decision of the Council of Ministers from 1935 to transform the Hagia Sophia into a museum was annulled by the Council of State, decreeing that Hagia Sophia cannot be used "for any other purpose" than being a mosque and that the Hagia Sophia was property of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Han Foundation. The council reasoned Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, who conquered Istanbul, deemed the property to be used by the public as a mosque without any fees and was not within the jurisdiction of the Parliament or a ministry council.[158][159] Despite secular and global criticism, Erdoğan signed a decree annulling the Hagia Sophia's museum status, reverting it to a mosque.[160][161] The call to prayer was broadcast from the minarets shortly after the announcement of the change and rebroadcast by major Turkish news networks.[161] The Hagia Sophia Museum's social media channels were taken down the same day, with Erdoğan announcing at a press conference that prayers themselves would be held there from 24 July.[161] A presidential spokesperson said it would become a working mosque, open to anyone similar to the Parisian churches Sacré-Cœur and Notre-Dame. The spokesperson also said that the change would not affect the status of the Hagia Sophia as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and that "Christian icons" within it would continue to be protected.[147] Earlier the same day, before the final decision, the Turkish Finance and Treasury Minister Berat Albayrak and the Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül expressed their expectations of opening the Hagia Sophia to worship for Muslims.[162][163] Mustafa Şentop, Speaker of Turkey's Grand National Assembly, said "a longing in the heart of our nation has ended".[162] A presidential spokesperson claimed that all political parties in Turkey supported Erdoğan's decision;[164] however, the Peoples' Democratic Party had previously released a statement denouncing the decision, saying "decisions on human heritage cannot be made on the basis of political games played by the government".[165] The mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, said that he supports the conversion "as long as it benefits Turkey", adding that he felt that Hagia Sophia has been a mosque since 1453.[166] Ali Babacan attacked the policy of his former ally Erdoğan, saying the Hagia Sophia issue "has come to the agenda now only to cover up other problems".[167] Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate, publicly denounced the move, saying "Kemal Atatürk changed... Hagia Sophia from a mosque to a museum, honouring all previous Greek Orthodox and Latin Catholic history, making it as a sign of Turkish modern secularism".[161][168]

On 17 July, Erdoğan announced that the first prayers in the Hagia Sophia would be open to between 1,000 and 1,500 worshippers. He said that Turkey had sovereign power over Hagia Sophia and was not obligated to bend to international opinion.[169]

While the Hagia Sophia has now been rehallowed as a mosque, the place remains open for visitors outside of prayer times. While at the beginning the entrance was free,[170] later the Turkish government decided that, starting from 15 January 2024, foreign nationals would have to pay an entrance fee.[171]

On 22 July, a turquoise-coloured carpet was laid to prepare the mosque for worshippers; Ali Erbaş, head of the Diyanet, attended its laying.[167] The omphalion was left exposed. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Erbaş said Hagia Sophia would accommodate up to 1,000 worshippers at a time and asked that they bring "masks, a prayer rug, patience and understanding".[167] The mosque opened for Friday prayers on 24 July, the 97th anniversary of the signature of the Treaty of Lausanne, which established the borders of the modern Turkish Republic.[167] The mosaics of the Virgin and Child in the apse were covered by white drapes.[168] There had been proposals to conceal the mosaics with lasers during prayer times, but this idea was ultimately shelved.[172][173] Erbaş proclaimed during his sermon, "Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror dedicated this magnificent construction to believers to remain a mosque until the Day of Resurrection".[168] Erdoğan and some government ministers attended the midday prayers as many worshippers prayed outside; at one point the security cordon was breached and dozens of people broke through police lines.[168] Turkey invited foreign leaders and officials, including Pope Francis, for the prayers.[174] It is the fourth Byzantine church converted from museum to a mosque during Erdoğan's rule.[175]

In April 2022, the Hagia Sophia held its first Ramadan tarawih prayer in 88 years.[176]

Days before the final decision on the conversion was made, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople stated in a sermon that "the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque would disappoint millions of Christians around the world", he also said that Hagia Sophia, which was "a vital center where East is embraced with the West", would "fracture these two worlds" in the event of conversion.[177][178] The proposed conversion was decried by other Orthodox Christian leaders, the Russian Orthodox Church's Patriarch Kirill of Moscow stating that "a threat to Hagia Sophia [wa]s a threat to all of Christian civilization".[179][180]

Following the Turkish government's decision, UNESCO announced it "deeply regret[ted]" the conversion "made without prior discussion", and asked Turkey to "open a dialogue without delay", stating that the lack of negotiation was "regrettable".[181][161] UNESCO further announced that the "state of conservation" of Hagia Sophia would be "examined" at the next session of the World Heritage Committee, urging Turkey "to initiate dialogue without delay, in order to prevent any detrimental effect on the universal value of this exceptional heritage".[181] Ernesto Ottone, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture said "It is important to avoid any implementing measure, without prior discussion with UNESCO, that would affect physical access to the site, the structure of the buildings, the site's moveable property, or the site's management".[181] UNESCO's statement of 10 July said "these concerns were shared with the Republic of Turkey in several letters, and again yesterday evening with the representative of the Turkish Delegation" without a response.[181]

The World Council of Churches, which claims to represent 500 million Christians of 350 denominations, condemned the decision to convert the building into a mosque, saying that would "inevitably create uncertainties, suspicions and mistrust"; the World Council of Churches urged Turkey's president Erdoğan "to reconsider and reverse" his decision "in the interests of promoting mutual understanding, respect, dialogue and cooperation, and avoiding cultivating old animosities and divisions".[182][183][184] At the recitation of the Sunday Angelus prayer at St Peter's Square on 12 July Pope Francis said, "My thoughts go to Istanbul. I think of Santa Sophia and I am very pained" (Italian: Penso a Santa Sofia, a Istanbul, e sono molto addolorato).[c][186][187] The International Association of Byzantine Studies announced that its 21st International Congress, due to be held in Istanbul in 2021, will no longer be held there and is postponed to 2022.[157]

Josep Borrell, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the European Commission, released a statement calling the decisions by the Council of State and Erdoğan "regrettable" and pointing out that "as a founding member of the Alliance of Civilisations, Turkey has committed to the promotion of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue and to fostering of tolerance and co-existence."[188] According to Borrell, the European Union member states' twenty-seven foreign ministers "condemned the Turkish decision to convert such an emblematic monument as the Hagia Sophia" at meeting on 13 July, saying it "will inevitably fuel the mistrust, promote renewed division between religious communities and undermine our efforts at dialog and cooperation" and that "there was a broad support to call on the Turkish authorities to urgently reconsider and reverse this decision".[189][190] Greece denounced the conversion and considered it a breach of the UNESCO World Heritage titling.[147] Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni called it an "open provocation to the civilised world" which "absolutely confirms that there is no independent justice" in Erdoğan's Turkey, and that his Turkish nationalism "takes his country back six centuries".[191] Greece and Cyprus called for EU sanctions on Turkey.[192] Morgan Ortagus, the spokesperson for the United States Department of State, noted: "We are disappointed by the decision by the government of Turkey to change the status of the Hagia Sophia."[191] Jean-Yves Le Drian, foreign minister of France, said his country "deplores" the move, saying "these decisions cast doubt on one of the most symbolic acts of modern and secular Turkey".[184] Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian Federation Council, said that it "will not do anything for the Muslim world. It does not bring nations together, but on the contrary brings them into collision" and calling the move a "mistake".[191] The former deputy prime minister of Italy, Matteo Salvini, held a demonstration in protest outside the Turkish consulate in Milan, calling for all plans for accession of Turkey to the European Union to be terminated "once and for all".[193] In East Jerusalem, a protest was held outside the Turkish consulate on 13 July, with the burning of a Turkish flag and the display of the Greek flag and flag of the Greek Orthodox Church.[194] In a statement the Turkish foreign ministry condemned the burning of the flag, saying "nobody can disrespect or encroach our glorious flag".[195]

Ersin Tatar, prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey, welcomed the decision, calling it "sound" and "pleasing".[196][191] He further criticized the government of Cyprus, claiming that "the Greek Cypriot administration, who burned down our mosques, should not have a say in this".[196] Through a spokesman the Foreign Ministry of Iran welcomed the change, saying the decision was an "issue that should be considered as part of Turkey's national sovereignty" and "Turkey's internal affair".[197] Sergei Vershinin, deputy foreign minister of Russia, said that the matter was of one of "internal affairs, in which, of course, neither we nor others should interfere."[198][199] The Arab Maghreb Union was supportive.[200] Ekrema Sabri, imam of the al-Aqsa Mosque, and Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalili, grand mufti of Oman, both congratulated Turkey on the move.[200] The Muslim Brotherhood was also in favour of the news.[200] A spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas called the verdict "a proud moment for all Muslims".[201] Pakistani politician Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) welcomed the ruling, claiming it was "not only in accordance with the wishes of the people of Turkey but the entire Muslim world".[202] The Muslim Judicial Council group in South Africa praised the move, calling it "a historic turning point".[203] In Nouakchott, capital of Mauritania, there were prayers and celebrations topped by the sacrifice of a camel.[204] On the other hand, Shawki Allam, grand mufti of Egypt, ruled that conversion of the Hagia Sophia to a mosque is "impermissible".[205]

When President Erdoğan announced that the first Muslim prayers would be held inside the building on 24 July, he added that "like all our mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia will be wide open to locals and foreigners, Muslims and non-Muslims." Presidential spokesman İbrahim Kalın said that the icons and mosaics of the building would be preserved, and that "in regards to the arguments of secularism, religious tolerance and coexistence, there are more than four hundred churches and synagogues open in Turkey today."[206] Ömer Çelik, spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), announced on 13 July that entry to Hagia Sophia would be free of charge and open to all visitors outside prayer times, during which Christian imagery in the building's mosaics would be covered by curtains or lasers.[193] The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, told TRT Haber on 13 July that the government was surprised at the reaction of UNESCO, saying that "We have to protect our ancestors' heritage. The function can be this way or that way – it does not matter".[207]

On 14 July the prime minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said his government was "considering its response at all levels" to what he called Turkey's "unnecessary, petty initiative", and that "with this backward action, Turkey is opting to sever links with western world and its values".[208] In relation to both Hagia Sophia and the Cyprus–Turkey maritime zones dispute, Mitsotakis called for European sanctions against Turkey, referring to it as "a regional troublemaker, and which is evolving into a threat to the stability of the whole south-east Mediterranean region".[208] Dora Bakoyannis, Greek former foreign minister, said Turkey's actions had "crossed the Rubicon", distancing itself from the West.[209] On the day of the building's re-opening, Mitsotakis called the re-conversion evidence of Turkey's weakness rather than a show of power.[168]

Armenia's Foreign Ministry expressed "deep concern" about the move, adding that it brought to a close Hagia Sophia's symbolism of "cooperation and unity of humankind instead of clash of civilizations."[210] Catholicos Karekin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, said the move "violat[ed] the rights of national religious minorities in Turkey."[211] Sahak II Mashalian, the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, perceived as loyal to the Turkish government, endorsed the decision to convert the museum into a mosque. He said, "I believe that believers' praying suits better the spirit of the temple instead of curious tourists running around to take pictures."[212]

In July 2021, UNESCO asked for an updated report on the state of conservation and expressed "grave concern". There were also some concerns about the future of its World Heritage status.[213] Turkey responded that the changes had "no negative impact" on UNESCO standards and the criticism is "biased and political".[214]

Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture.[8] Its interior is decorated with mosaics, marble pillars, and coverings of great artistic value. Justinian had overseen the completion of the greatest cathedral ever built up to that time, and it was to remain the largest cathedral for 1,000 years until the completion of the cathedral in Seville in Spain.[215]

The Hagia Sophia uses masonry construction. The structure has brick and mortar joints that are 1.5 times the width of the bricks. The mortar joints are composed of a combination of sand and minute ceramic pieces distributed evenly throughout the mortar joints. This combination of sand and potsherds was often used in Roman concrete, a predecessor to modern concrete. A considerable amount of iron was used as well, in the form of cramps and ties.[216]

Justinian's basilica was at once the culminating architectural achievement of late antiquity and the first masterpiece of Byzantine architecture. Its influence, both architecturally and liturgically, was widespread and enduring in the Eastern Christianity, Western Christianity, and Islam alike.[217][218]

The vast interior has a complex structure. The nave is covered by a central dome which at its maximum is 55.6 m (182 ft 5 in) from floor level and rests on an arcade of 40 arched windows. Repairs to its structure have left the dome somewhat elliptical, with the diameter varying between 31.24 and 30.86 m (102 ft 6 in and 101 ft 3 in).[219]

At the western entrance and eastern liturgical side, there are arched openings extended by half domes of identical diameter to the central dome, carried on smaller semi-domed exedrae, a hierarchy of dome-headed elements built up to create a vast oblong interior crowned by the central dome, with a clear span of 76.2 m (250 ft).[8]

The theories of Hero of Alexandria, a Hellenistic mathematician of the 1st century AD, may have been utilized to address the challenges presented by building such an expansive dome over so large a space.[220] Svenshon and Stiffel proposed that the architects used Hero's proposed values for constructing vaults. The square measurements were calculated using the side-and-diagonal number progression, which results in squares defined by the numbers 12 and 17, wherein 12 defines the side of the square and 17 its diagonal, which have been used as standard values as early as in cuneiform Babylonian texts.[221]

Each of the four sides of the great square Hagia Sophia is approximately 31 m long,[222] and it was previously thought that this was the equivalent of 100 Byzantine feet.[221] Svenshon suggested that the size of the side of the central square of Hagia Sophia is not 100 Byzantine feet but instead 99 feet. This measurement is not only rational, but it is also embedded in the system of the side-and-diagonal number progression (70/99) and therefore a usable value by the applied mathematics of antiquity. It gives a diagonal of 140 which is manageable for constructing a huge dome like that of the Hagia Sophia.[223]

The stone floor of Hagia Sophia dates from the 6th century. After the first collapse of the vault, the broken dome was left in situ on the original Justinianic floor and a new floor was laid above the rubble when the dome was rebuilt in 558.[224] From the installation of this second Justinianic floor, the floor became part of the liturgy, with significant locations and spaces demarcated in various ways using different-coloured stones and marbles.[224]

The floor is predominantly made up of Proconnesian marble, quarried on Proconnesus (Marmara Island) in the Propontis (Sea of Marmara). This was the main white marble used in the monuments of Constantinople. Other parts of the floor, like the Thessalian verd antique "marble", were quarried in Thessaly in Roman Greece. The Thessalian verd antique bands across the nave floor were often likened to rivers.[225]

The floor was praised by numerous authors and repeatedly compared to a sea.[114] The Justinianic poet Paul the Silentiary likened the ambo and the solea connecting it to the sanctuary with an island in a sea, with the sanctuary itself a harbour.[114] The 9th-century Narratio writes of it as "like the sea or the flowing waters of a river".[114] Michael the Deacon in the 12th century also described the floor as a sea in which the ambo and other liturgical furniture stood as islands.[114] During the 15th-century conquest of Constantinople, the Ottoman caliph Mehmed is said to have ascended to the dome and the galleries in order to admire the floor, which according to Tursun Beg resembled "a sea in a storm" or a "petrified sea".[114] Other Ottoman-era authors also praised the floor; Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi compared it to waves of marble.[114] The floor was hidden beneath a carpet on 22 July 2020.[167]

The Imperial Gate, or Imperial Door, was the main entrance between the exo- and esonarthex, and it was originally exclusively used by the emperor.[226][227] A long ramp from the northern part of the outer narthex leads up to the upper gallery.[228]

The upper gallery, or matroneum, is horseshoe-shaped; it encloses the nave on three sides and is interrupted by the apse. Several mosaics are preserved in the upper gallery, an area traditionally reserved for the Empress and her court. The best-preserved mosaics are located in the southern part of the gallery.

The northern first floor gallery contains runic graffiti believed to have been left by members of the Varangian Guard.[229] Structural damage caused by natural disasters is visible on the Hagia Sophia's exterior surface. To ensure that the Hagia Sophia did not sustain any damage on the interior of the building, studies have been conducted using ground penetrating radar within the gallery of the Hagia Sophia. With the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR), teams discovered weak zones within the Hagia Sophia's gallery and also concluded that the curvature of the vault dome has been shifted out of proportion, compared to its original angular orientation.[230]

The dome of Hagia Sophia has spurred particular interest for many art historians, architects, and engineers because of the innovative way the original architects envisioned it. The dome is carried on four spherical triangular pendentives, making the Hagia Sophia one of the first large-scale uses of this element. The pendentives are the corners of the square base of the dome, and they curve upwards into the dome to support it, thus restraining the lateral forces of the dome and allowing its weight to flow downwards.[231][232] The main dome of the Hagia Sophia was the largest pendentive dome in the world until the completion of St Peter's Basilica, and it has a much lower height than any other dome of such a large diameter.

The great dome at the Hagia Sophia is 32.6 meters (one hundred and seven feet) in diameter and is only 0.61 meters (two feet) thick. The main building materials for the original Hagia Sophia were brick and mortar. Brick aggregate was used to make roofs easier to construct. The aggregate weighs 2402.77 kilograms per cubic meter (150 pounds per cubic foot), an average weight of masonry construction at the time. Due to the materials plasticity, it was chosen over cut stone due to the fact that aggregate can be used over a longer distance.[233] According to Rowland Mainstone, "it is unlikely that the vaulting-shell is anywhere more than one normal brick in thickness".[234]

The weight of the dome remained a problem for most of the building's existence. The original cupola collapsed entirely after the earthquake of 558; in 563 a new dome was built by Isidore the Younger, a nephew of Isidore of Miletus. Unlike the original, this included 40 ribs and was raised 6.1 meters (20 feet), in order to lower the lateral forces on the church walls. A larger section of the second dome collapsed as well, over two episodes, so that as of 2021, only two sections of the present dome, the north and south sides, are from the 562 reconstructions. Of the whole dome's 40 ribs, the surviving north section contains eight ribs, while the south section includes six ribs.[235]

Although this design stabilizes the dome and the surrounding walls and arches, the actual construction of the walls of Hagia Sophia weakened the overall structure. The bricklayers used more mortar than brick, which is more effective if the mortar was allowed to settle, as the building would have been more flexible; however, the builders did not allow the mortar to cure before they began the next layer. When the dome was erected, its weight caused the walls to lean outward because of the wet mortar underneath. When Isidore the Younger rebuilt the fallen cupola, he had first to build up the interior of the walls to make them vertical again. Additionally, the architect raised the height of the rebuilt dome by approximately 6 m (20 ft) so that the lateral forces would not be as strong and its weight would be transmitted more effectively down into the walls. Moreover, he shaped the new cupola like a scalloped shell or the inside of an umbrella, with ribs that extend from the top down to the base. These ribs allow the weight of the dome to flow between the windows, down the pendentives, and ultimately to the foundation.[236]

Hagia Sophia is famous for the light that reflects everywhere in the interior of the nave, giving the dome the appearance of hovering above. This effect was achieved by inserting forty windows around the base of the original structure. Moreover, the insertion of the windows in the dome structure reduced its weight.[236]

Numerous buttresses have been added throughout the centuries. The flying buttresses to the west of the building, although thought to have been constructed by the Crusaders upon their visit to Constantinople, were actually built during the Byzantine era. This shows that the Romans had prior knowledge of flying buttresses, which can also be seen at in Greece, at the Rotunda of Galerius in Thessaloniki, at the monastery of Hosios Loukas in Boeotia, and in Italy at the octagonal basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna.[236] Other buttresses were constructed during the Ottoman times under the guidance of the architect Sinan. A total of 24 buttresses were added.[237]

The minarets were an Ottoman addition and not part of the original church's Byzantine design. They were built for notification of invitations for prayers (adhan) and announcements. Mehmed had built a wooden minaret over one of the half domes soon after Hagia Sophia's conversion from a cathedral to a mosque. This minaret does not exist today. One of the minarets (at southeast) was built from red brick and can be dated back from the reign of Mehmed or his successor Beyazıd II. The other three were built from white limestone and sandstone, of which the slender northeast column was erected by Bayezid II and the two identical, larger minarets to the west were erected by Selim II and designed by the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. Both are 60 m (200 ft) in height, and their thick and massive patterns complete Hagia Sophia's main structure. Many ornaments and details were added to these minarets on repairs during the 15th, 16th, and 19th centuries, which reflect each period's characteristics and ideals.[238][239]

Northern tympanum mosaics

The northern tympanum mosaics feature various saints. They have been able to survive due to their high and inaccessible location. They depict Patriarchs of Constantinople John Chrysostom and Ignatios of Constantinople standing, clothed in white robes with crosses, and holding richly jewelled Bibles. The figures of each patriarch, revered as saints, are identifiable by labels in Greek. The other mosaics in the other tympana have not survived probably due to the frequent earthquakes, as opposed to any deliberate destruction by the Ottoman conquerors.[279]

The dome was decorated with four non-identical figures of the six-winged angels which protect the Throne of God; it is uncertain whether they are seraphim or cherubim. The mosaics survive in the eastern part of the dome, but since the ones on the western side were damaged during the Byzantine period, they have been renewed as frescoes. During the Ottoman period each seraph's (or cherub's) face was covered with metallic lids in the shape of stars, but these were removed to reveal the faces during renovations in 2009.[280]

The Architectural Design of Hagia Sophia

The main building is 82 meters high, and its dome is 55.6 meters high, with a 31.7-meter diameter and 40 windows. The building is placed on four massive columns made of green marble; each is 24.3 meters high. At the end of the 20th century, four hidden tilted pillars were discovered against the upper dome, meaning they are the oldest existing pillars in the history of architecture.

The building can be entered through nine doors. It has a basilica style (ancient Roman architecture) known by the Greeks in building their religious monuments and found in Rome. Their buildings are rectangular-shaped from inside and outside, with a spacious frontal atrium, surrounded by a long porch leading to side halls, one of which is the main hall, where the colossal dome rest on.

Halls Surrounding Hagia Sophia and Doors Leading to the Main Hall

Hagia Sophia’s Main Hall Ceiling from Inside

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FAQs about Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is originally a Greek name, meaning “Holy Wisdom.” According to historical studies, Hagia Sophia was an Egyptian Coptic saint born in Badrashin, Giza.

She used to worship idols, but her feelings were directed towards Christianity due to her Christian neighbours, who persevered going to church and spread love and affection.

Sophia, whom her friends and neighbours influenced, wanted to learn more about Christianity and regularly went to church to learn. A few days later, she converted to Christianity.

However, the Byzantine ruler saw that her deeds angered the gods and ordered her to return to idolatry, but she refused. So, he ordered his soldiers to torture her with whips, cut off her tongue, and sent her into a dark cell. Finally, he ordered his guards to decapitate her.

When King Constantine and his mother, Queen Helena, heard of the many blessings of the saint in Egypt, he ordered to transfer her body to Istanbul after he had built a great church in her honour.

Located in the Sultan Ahmed district in Istanbul, Hagia Sophia is a unique art and architecture work; it is one of the most prominent architectural monuments in the Middle East. It used to be a mosque for 481 years, then turned into a museum in 1934.

King Constantine and his mother, Queen Helena, built it in 325 AD. After being burnt and destroyed, Hagia Sophia was rebuilt in 5 years by Emperor Justinian (Justinian I) to be completed in 573.

About 100 architects took part in the construction work, supervised by two senior architects. Every architect worked with 100 workers.

Hagia Sophia is located on the European side of Istanbul, in the Sultan Ahmed district.

Hagia Sophia was built in 325 AD by King Constantine and his mother, Queen Helena.

Hagia Sophia was originally a church before it was turned into a mosque by Sultan Mehmed Fatih in 1453. Then it was turned into a museum in 1934 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and finally back to a mosque in 2020.

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Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Kumandang Adzan kembali menggema di Hagia Sophia. Masjid yang sebelumnya museum ini akhirnya mengadakan tarawih pertama setelah 88 tahun.

Bulan suci Ramadan di Turki dimulai pada 2 April lalu. Masjid Agung Hagia Sophia di Istanbul, Turki ikut ambil bagian dalam momen ini.Pada tanggal 1 April malam, tarawih pertama dilakukan di sana. Jamaah muslim berbondong-bondong datang ke sana untuk menunaikan ibadah sunnah yang hanya bisa dilakukan pada bulan Ramadan tersebut.

Foto: Damai, Salat Tarawih di Hagia Sophia, Pertama Sejak 88 Tahun(CNBC Indonesia TV)

Damai, Salat Tarawih di Hagia Sophia, Pertama Sejak 88 Tahun(CNBC Indonesia TV)

Di tengah pandemi lalu, Hagia Sophia diresmikan kembali menjadi masjid setelah lama menjadi museum. Perubahan fungsi bangunan ini didasarkan pada keputusan pengadilan yang menyebutkan perubahannya di tahun 1930-an menjadi museum adalah ilegal.

Dilansir dari Hurriyet Daily News, Senin (4/4/2022) pembukaan masjid Hagia Sophia disertai dengan data turunnya jumlah infeksi Covid-19.

Hagia Sophia memiliki arti kebijaksanaan ilahi dalam bahasa Yunani. Dibangun pada tahun 537 sebagai gereja Kristen terbesar di Kekaisaran Romawi timur, Hagia Sophia diubah menjadi masjid pada tahun 1453, setelah penaklukan Istanbul.

Terkenal dengan kubahnya yang besar, bangunan Hagia Sophia bahkan dianggap sebagai lambang Arsitektur Romawi Timur yang mengubah sejarah arsitektur. Pada tahun 1985, Hagia Sophia masuk dalam Daftar Warisan Dunia UNESCO.

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