Hagia Sophia Museum History

The Church of Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia (Άγια Σοφία) in Greek, Sancta Sophia in Latin and Ayasofya Hagia Sophia, or called in Turkish, is a former Byzantine church and former Ottoman mosque in Istanbul. Now a museum, the Hagia Sophia in general as a major building in the world recognized.
History Unfortunately nothing remains of the original Hagia Sophia, which was on this site in the fourth century by Constantine the Great built. Constantine was the first Christian emperor and the founder of the city of Constantinople, which he called "the new Rome." The Hagia Sophia was one of several great churches he built in important cities of his empire.
After the destruction of the Church of Constantine, a second was built by his son Constantius and the emperor Theodosius the Great. This second church was burned during the Nika riots of 532, although fragments have been unearthed and can be visited today.

Mosaic portrait of Emperor Sophia was built by Justinian Ravenna.Hagia in its current form, 532-537 under the personal supervision of Emperor Justinian I re-
It is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture, richly decorated with mosaics and marble pillars and coverings. Upon completion, Justinian is said to have exclaimed Νενίκηκά σε Σολομών ("Solomon, I have surpassed thee!").
The architects of the church were Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius Tralles of the professors of geometry at the University of Constantinople. Their work was a technical triumph, though the structure was severely damaged several times by earthquakes. The original dome collapsed after an earthquake in 558 and its replacement fell in 563rd Measures have been taken to ensure better protection of the dome, but there were additional partial collapses in 989 and 1346th
Justinian's basilica was both the culmination of architectural achievement of late antiquity and the first masterpiece of Byzantine architecture. His influence, both architecturally and liturgically, was widespread and persistent in both the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Muslim world.
For over 900 years the Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople and the main setting for church councils and imperial ceremonies.
In 1204 the Cathedral was ruthlessly attacked, raped, and by the Crusaders, who also ousted the Patriarch of Constantinople sacked and replaced it with a Latin bishop. This event cemented the division of the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, which had begun with the Great Schism of 1054. It also means that most of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul riches can not today but in the treasury of the Basilica of St. Mark's in Venice.
Despite this serious setback, Hagia Sophia remained a functioning church, to 29 May 1453, when Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror triumphantly entered the city of Constantinople. He was amazed at the beauty of the Hagia Sophia and immediately converted it into his imperial mosque.
Hagia Sophia served as the main mosque of Istanbul for almost 500 years. It was a model for many of the Ottoman mosques of Istanbul, such as the Blue Mosque, the Suleiman Mosque, the Mosque and the Rustem Pasha Mosque Shehzad.
No major structural changes were made in the first, made the addition of a mihrab (prayer niche), minibar (pulpit) and a wooden minaret of a mosque from the church. shown at some early point, all the faces in the church mosaics in plaster by the Islamic prohibition of figurative imagery covered. Several additions have been made over the centuries by successive sultans.
Sultan Mehmed II established a madrasa (religious school) near the mosque and organized a waqf for his expenses. Extensive renovations were carried out by Mimar Sinan during the reign of Selim II, Sultan Minaret including the original box and others. Mimar Sinan built the mausoleum of Selim II to the southeast of the mosque in 1577 and the mausoleums of Murad III and Mehmed III were built next to him in the 1600s. Mahmud I ordered a restoration of the mosque in 1739 and has an ablution fountain, madrasa, soup kitchen and library, so that the mosque in the center of a social complex.
The most famous restoration of the Hagia Sophia was invited between 1847-1849 by Abdülmecid II, the Swiss architects Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati to renovate the mosque completed. The brothers consolidated the dome and vaults, straightened the columns, and revised the decoration of the exterior and interior.
The discovery of the figural mosaics after the Hagia Sophia was the secularization of the descriptions of the Fossati brothers, who had found out a century ago for cleaning and recording. The Fossati said the calligraphic roundels that remain today. They were given calligrapher Izzet Efendi Kazasker in order and replace older plates hanging on the pillars.
In 1934, Turkish President Kemal Ataturk, was the Hagia Sofia secularized and turned into the Ayasofya Museum. The prayer rugs were removed, revealing the marble below, but the mosaics and the building was rendered largely allowed to decay for some time. Some of the calligraphic panels were moved to other mosques, but eight roundels were left, and can be visited today.
A 1993 UNESCO mission in Turkey noted falling plaster, dirty marble facings, broken windows damaged, decorative paintings by damp and ill-maintained lead roofing. Cleaning, roofing and restoration work has been undertaken since then, many visitors have recently stepped up its view of a huge mill stretch to clogged found in the dome in the middle of the nave.
What to see For a visual description, see our interactive floor plan Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia or use our photo gallery. Click bottom left of the text for photos.
The Hagia Sophia is a classical basilica plan. The main plan of the building is a rectangle, 230 feet (70 meters) in width and 246 feet (75 meters) in length. The area is managed by a central dome (see the outside and inside) with a diameter of 102 feet (31 meters), which is only slightly smaller than that of the Pantheon in Rome.
The main dome is carried on gusset, four concave triangular sections of masonry which solve the problem of setting the circular base of a dome on a rectangular base. Each Pendentif is decorated with a Seraphim. The weight of the dome through the wedge floating on four massive piers at the corners, and between them the dome seems to be four large arches.
At the western and eastern ends of the arched openings are extended by half domes. The flat wall on each side of the interior (north and south) is called a tympanum, and each has 12 large windows in two rows, seven in the lower and five in the top.
Just outside the entrance, stone cannon balls line the gravel path of the outer courtyard. These are the actual cannon balls used by Mehmet the Conqueror in his victorious 1453 battle for the city.
All interior surfaces are covered with colored marble, green and white covered with purple porphyry and gold mosaics. On the exterior, simple stuccoed walls reveal the clarity of massed vaults and domes.
The Islamic calligraphy roundels of the main dome since 19 Century exposed remain in force and provide a fascinating contrast to the religious uncovered Christian mosaics. The names of the eight wooden medallions are painted: Allah and Muhammad (flanking the apse), the first four caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali (at the four corners of the dome) and the two grandsons of Mohammed, Hasan and Husayn (in long house).
The Byzantine mosaics are revealed gradually, but only those on the higher levels of gallery, which can be accessed by stairs to the payment of a fee. This means that Muslims not to much Christian imagery in the main chamber of the building was a mosque for nearly 500 years and remains all the equipment to confront a mosque.
When the Hagia Sophia was used as a place of worship for both Christians and Muslims to be the focus of the building was at the eastern end, opposite the entrance. This is because Christian churches have traditionally focused on the east, and Muslims always pray facing Mecca, which is southeast of Istanbul (the "east" end of the Hagia Sophia really faces southeast). Thus, the majority of sites are clustered in this area of great interior of Hagia Sophia's.
On the ground, most sites are from the Islamic period. A beautiful marble structure in the apse is the mihrab, a niche found in all mosques indicating the direction to Mecca. The large free-standing staircase on the right side of the mihrab is the mini-bar, or pulpit, commissioned by the sermons. On the left side of the mihrab is the great Sultan's Lodge in the Fossati brothers, who restored Hagia Sophia in the 1800s.
Find out this field, we see a beautiful apse mosaic of the Virgin and Child. On the right is a part Archangel Gabriel damaged mosaic. Gabriel used to create a mosaic of the Archangel Michael on the other side of the apse of the face, but that is now almost completely disappeared.
The most famous of the Hagia Sophia's mosaics are on the top floor, in the galleries. The South Gallery, where the great mosaics, was used for church councils. When the Hagia Sophia a mosque was, were the galleries of the city, where women during religious services SA today, the galleries, visitors make a spectacular view of the nave from all sides and in close-up of some of the finest Byzantine mosaics to be seen everywhere.
The best known is called the mosaic Deesis Mosaic, and it is the first you come from, how in the south through the gallery door Marble in force. It shows a triumphant Christ and royal flanked (known as "Christ Pantrocrator"), of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist.
At the end of the south gallery are two golden Byzantine mosaics. On the left side of Christ with Constantine IX and Empress Zoe Monomachus right is the Virgin and Child with Emperor John II Comnenus and Empress Irene.
Modern exit from the Hagia Sophia is the lobby of the Warriors, so called because it is where the emperor's bodyguards while he was praying waited. Up high and behind you as you walk out is a beautiful mosaic of the Virgin with Constantine and Justinian: Constantine the Great gifts to the Virgin a model of the city of Constantinople (Istanbul), which he founded and presented the Emperor Justinian, the Church of Hagia Sophia , which he rebuilt. This mosaic probably dates from the 10th Century.
There are several interesting things to see, outside of Hagia Sophia, including three mausoleums of the Sultans, the church baptistery, and the remains of Theodosius' Hagia Sophia excavated