Basílica de Santa Sofia (Hagia Sophia), Istambul, Turquia
Istambul - Turquia
Fotografia
Hagia Sophia (/ˈhɑːɡiə soʊˈfiːə/;
from the Greek Αγία
Σοφία, pronounced [aˈʝia soˈfia], "Holy Wisdom"; Latin: Sancta
Sophia or Sancta Sapientia; Turkish: Ayasofya) is the former Greek Orthodox
Christian patriarchal
cathedral, later an Ottoman imperialmosque and now a museum (Ayasofya Müzesi) in Istanbul, Turkey. Built in AD 537 at the beginning
of the Middle
Ages, it was famous in particular for its massive dome. It was the world's largest building and an engineering
marvel of its time. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine
architecture and is said to have "changed the history of
architecture".
The Hagia Sophia construction consists of
mostly masonry. The structure is composed of 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 displaced very evenly throughout the mortar
joints. This combination of sand and ceramic pieces could be considered to be
the equivalent of modern concrete at
the time.
From the date of its construction's
completion in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern
Orthodox cathedral and
the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, except between
1204 and 1261, when it was converted by the Fourth Crusaders to a Roman Catholic cathedral
under the Latin
Empire. The building was later converted into an Ottoman mosque from
29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a
museum on 1 February 1935. It remained the world's largest cathedral for
nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was
completed in 1520.
The current building was originally
constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian Iand was the third
Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the prior one having been
destroyed by rioters in the Nika riots. It was designed by
the Greek geometers Isidore
of Miletus and Anthemius
of Tralles. The church was dedicated to the Wisdom
of God, the Logos,
the second person of the Trinity, its patronal feast taking place
on 25 December, the commemoration
of the birthof the incarnation of
the Logos in Christ. Although sometimes referred to as Sancta Sophia (as
though it were named after Sophia the Martyr), sophia being the phonetic
spelling in Latin of the Greek word for
wisdom, its full name in Greek is Ναός της Αγίας του Θεού Σοφίας, Naos tēs Hagias tou Theou Sophias,
"Shrine of the Holy Wisdom of God". The church contained a large
collection of relics and featured, among
other things, a 15-metre (49 ft) silver iconostasis. The focal
point of the Eastern
Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand years, the building
witnessed the excommunication of
Patriarch Michael
I Cerularius officially communicated by Humbert
of Silva Candida, the papal envoy of Pope Leo IX in 1054, an act
that is commonly considered the start of the East–West
Schism.
In 1453, Constantinople
was conquered by the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed
the Conqueror, who ordered this main church of Orthodox Christianity
converted into a mosque. Although some parts of the city of Constantinople had fallen
into disrepair, the cathedral had been maintained with funds set aside for this
purpose, and the Christian cathedral made a strong impression on the new
Ottoman rulers who conceived its conversion. The bells, altar, iconostasis,
and other relics were destroyed and the mosaics depicting Jesus, his
Mother Mary, Christian saints, and angels were also destroyed or plastered
over. Islamic
features – such as the mihrab (a niche in the wall
indicating the direction toward Mecca, for prayer), minbar (pulpit), and
four minarets – were added. It
remained a mosque until 1931 when it was closed to the public for four years.
It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey. Hagia Sophia
was, as of 2014, the second-most visited museum in Turkey, attracting almost
3.3 million visitors annually. According to data released by the Turkish
Culture and Tourism Ministry, Hagia Sophia was Turkey's most visited tourist
attraction in 2015.
From its initial conversion until the
construction of the nearby Sultan
Ahmed Mosque, aka the Blue Mosque of Istanbul, in 1616, it was the
principal mosque of Istanbul. The Byzantine architecture of the Hagia Sophia
served as inspiration for many other Ottoman mosques, including the Blue
Mosque, the Şehzade
Mosque, the Süleymaniye
Mosque, the Rüstem
Pasha Mosque and the Kılıç
Ali Pasha Complex.
Church of Constantius II
The
first church on the site was known as the Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία (Megálē Ekklēsíā, "Great
Church"), or in Latin Magna
Ecclesia, because of its larger dimensions in comparison to the
contemporary churches in the City. Inaugurated on 15 February 360 (during
the reign of Constantius II) by
the Arian bishop Eudoxius of Antioch, it
was built next to the area where the imperial palace was being developed. The
nearby Hagia Eirene ("Holy Peace")
church was completed earlier and served as cathedral until the Great Church was
completed. Both churches acted together as the principal churches of the
Byzantine Empire.
Writing
in 440, Socrates of Constantinople claimed
that the church was built by Constantius II, who was working on it in 346. A tradition
which is not older than the 7th or 8th century, reports that the edifice was
built by Constantine the Great. Zonaras reconciles the two opinions, writing that
Constantius had repaired the edifice consecrated by Eusebius of Nicomedia,
after it had collapsed. Since Eusebius was bishop of Constantinople from
339 to 341, and Constantine died in 337, it seems possible that the first
church was erected by the latter. The edifice was built as a traditional
Latin colonnaded basilica with galleries and a wooden roof. It was preceded by
an atrium. It was claimed to
be one of the world's most outstanding monuments at the time.
The
Patriarch of Constantinople John Chrysostom came into a conflict with Empress Aelia Eudoxia, wife of the emperor Arcadius, and was sent into exile on 20 June 404. During the
subsequent riots, this first church was largely burned down. Nothing
remains of the first church today.
Church of Theodosius II
A
second church on the site was ordered by Theodosius II, who inaugurated it on 10 October 415. The
basilica with a wooden roof was built by architect Rufinus. A fire started
during the tumult of the Nika Revolt and burned the second
Hagia Sophia to the ground on 13–14 January 532.
Several
marble blocks from the second church survive to the present; among them
are reliefs depicting 12 lambs representing the 12 apostles.
Originally part of a monumental front entrance, they now reside in an
excavation pit adjacent to the museum's entrance after they were discovered in
1935 beneath the western courtyard by A.M. Schneider. Further digging was forsaken
for fear of impinging on the integrity of the building.
Basilica
of the Hagia Sophia (current structure)
On 23 February 532, only a few weeks after
the destruction of the second basilica, Emperor Justinian I decided to build
a third and entirely different basilica, larger and more majestic than its
predecessors.
Justinian chose geometer and engineer Isidore
of Miletus and mathematician Anthemius
of Tralles as architects; Anthemius, however, died within the
first year of the endeavor. The construction is described in the Byzantine
historian Procopius' On Buildings (Peri ktismatōn, Latin: De aedificiis). Columns and other
marbles were brought from all over the empire, throughout the Mediterranean.
The idea of these columns being spoils from cities such as Rome and Ephesus is
a later invention. Even though they were made specifically for Hagia
Sophia, the columns show variations in size. More than ten thousand people
were employed. This new church was contemporaneously recognized as a major work
of architecture. The theories of Heron of
Alexandria may have been utilized to address the challenges
presented by building such an expansive dome over so large a space. The
emperor, together with the Patriarch Menas, inaugurated the new basilica on 27 December
537 – 5 years and 10 months after construction start – with much pomp. The mosaics
inside the church were, however, only completed under the reign of
Emperor Justin II (565–578).
Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople and a principal
setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies, such as coronations. Like other
churches throughout Christendom,
the basilica offered sanctuary from persecution to
outlaws.
Earthquakes in August 553 and on 14 December 557 caused cracks in the main dome and
eastern half-dome. The main dome collapsed completely during a subsequent
earthquake on 7 May 558, destroying the ambon, altar, and ciborium.
The collapse was due mainly to the unfeasibly high bearing load and to the
enormous shear
load of the dome, which was too flat. These caused the
deformation of the piers which sustained the dome. The emperor
ordered an immediate restoration. He entrusted it to Isidorus the Younger,
nephew of Isidore of Miletus, who used lighter materials and elevated the dome
by "30 feet" (about 6.25 meters or 20.5 feet) – giving the
building its current interior height of 55.6 meters (182 ft). Moreover,
Isidorus changed the dome type, erecting a ribbed dome with pendentives, whose diameter lay
between 32.7 and 33.5 m. Under Justinian's orders, eight Corinthian columns were
disassembled from Baalbek,
Lebanon, and shipped to Constantinople around 560. This reconstruction,
giving the church its present 6th-century form, was completed in 562. The Byzantine
poet Paul the
Silentiary composed a long epic poem (still extant), known
as Ekphrasis, for the
rededication of the basilica presided over by Patriarch Eutychius on 23 December 562.
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. After a brief reprieve under Empress Irene(797–802), the iconoclasts
made a comeback. The Emperor Theophilus (829–842)
had two-winged bronze doors with his monograms installed at the
southern entrance of the church.
The basilica suffered damage, first in a
great fire in 859, and again in an earthquake on 8 January 869, that made one
of the half-domes collapse. Emperor Basil I ordered the church
repaired.
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 cathedrals of Ani and Argina, to direct the
repairs. He erected again and reinforced the fallen dome arch, and rebuilt
the west side of the dome with 15 dome ribs. 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. On the great side arches were painted the
prophets and the teachers of the church.
In his book De
caerimoniis aulae Byzantinae ("Book of
Ceremonies"), Emperor Constantine VII (913–919)
wrote a detailed account of the ceremonies held in the Hagia Sophia by the
emperor and the patriarch.
Upon the capture of Constantinople during
the Fourth
Crusade, the church was ransacked and desecrated by the Crusaders,
as described by the Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates. During
the Latin
occupation of Constantinople (1204–1261) the church became a
Roman Catholic cathedral. Baldwin
I of Constantinople was crowned emperor on 16 May 1204 in Hagia
Sophia, at 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 near the
probable location, which is still visible today. The marker is frequently
mistaken by tourists as being a medieval marker of the actual tomb of the doge.
The real tomb was destroyed by the Ottomans after the conquest
of Constantinople in 1453 and subsequent conversion of Hagia
Sophia into a mosque.
After the recapture in 1261 by the
Byzantines, the church was in a dilapidated state. In 1317, emperor Andronicus
II ordered four new buttresses (Pyramídas, Greek:
"Πυραμίδας") to be built in the eastern and northern parts of the
church, financing them with the inheritance of his deceased wife, Irene. New
cracks developed in the dome after the earthquake of October 1344, and several
parts of the building collapsed on 19 May 1346; consequently, the church was
closed until 1354, when repairs were undertaken by architects Astras and
Peralta.
Mosque
(1453–1935)
Constantinople fell to the
attacking Ottoman forces on 29 May 1453. In accordance with the traditional
custom at the time, Sultan Mehmet II allowed his troops
and his entourage three full days of unbridled pillage and looting in the city
shortly after it was captured. Once the three days passed, he would then claim
its remaining contents for himself. Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage and
looting and specifically became its focal point as the invaders believed it to
contain the greatest treasures and valuables of the city. Shortly after
Constantinople's defenses collapsed and the Ottoman troops entered the city
victoriously, the pillagers and looters made their way to the Hagia Sophia and
battered down its doors before storming in. All throughout the period of
the siege of Constantinople, the trapped worshippers of the city participated
in the Divine
Liturgy and the Prayer of the Hours at the Hagia Sophia and the
church formed a safe-haven and a refuge for many of those who were unable to
contribute to the city's defense, which comprised women, children, the elderly
and the sick and the wounded. Being hopelessly trapped in the church, the
many congregants and yet more refugees inside became spoils-of-war to be
divided amongst the triumphant invaders. The building was significantly
desecrated and looted to a large extent, with the helpless occupants who sought
shelter within the church being either enslaved, physically and sexually
violated or simply slaughtered. While most of the elderly and the
infirm/wounded and sick were killed, a vast number of women and girls were
raped and the remainder (mainly teenage males and young boys) were chained up
and sold off into slavery. The church's priests and religious personnel
continued to perform Christian rites, prayers and ceremonies until finally
being forced to stop by the invaders. When Sultan Mehmet II and his
accompanying entourage entered the church, he insisted that it should be
converted into a mosque at once. One of the ulama (Islamic scholars) present then climbed up the
church's pulpit and recited out the Shahada ("There is no
God but Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet"), thus marking the beginning
of the gradual conversion of the church into a mosque.
As described by several
Western visitors (such as the Córdoban nobleman Pero Tafur and the Florentine Cristoforo
Buondelmonti),the church was in a dilapidated state, with several of its doors
fallen from their hinges; Mehmed II ordered a renovation as well as the
conversion. Mehmet attended the first Friday prayer in the mosque on 1 June
1453. Aya Sofya became the first imperial mosque of Istanbul. To the
corresponding Waqf were endowed most of the existing
houses in the city and the area of the future Topkapı Palace. 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. 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.
Before 1481, a small minaret was erected on the
southwest corner of the building, above the stair tower. Later, the
subsequent sultan, Bayezid
II (1481–1512), built another minaret at the northeast corner. One
of these collapsed after the earthquake
of 1509, 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. In the 16th century, Sultan Suleiman
the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566) brought two colossal
candlesticks from his conquest of Hungary and placed them on either side of
the mihrab. During Suleiman's
reign, the frescoes above the narthex and imperial gates depicting Jesus, Mary
and various Byzantine emperors were covered by whitewash and plaster, which was
removed in 1930 under the Turkish Republic.
During the reign of Selim II (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. In addition to strengthening the historic Byzantine
structure, Sinan built the 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. Moreover, the golden crescent was
mounted on the top of the dome, while a respect zone 35 arşin (about 24 m) wide was imposed around
the building, pulling down all the houses which in the meantime had nested
around it. Later his türbe hosted also 43 tombs of Ottoman princes. Murad III (r. 1574–1595) had
two large alabaster Hellenistic urns transported from Pergamon and placed on two
sides of the nave. In 1594 / AH 1004 Mimar (court architect) Davud Ağa built the türbe of Murad III, where the Sultan
and his Valide, Safiye Sultan were later
buried. The octagonal mausoleum of their son Mehmed III (1595–1603) and
his Valide was built next to it in 1608 / AH 1017 by royal architect Dalgiç
Mehmet Aĝa. His son Mustafa
I (1617–1618; 1622–1623) converted the baptistery into his
türbe.
In 1717, under Sultan Ahmed III (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. In fact, it was usual for them to sell mosaics
stones—believed to be talismans—to
the visitors. Sultan Mahmud I ordered
the restoration of the building in 1739 and added a medrese (a Koranic
school, now the library of the museum), an Imaret (soup kitchen
for distribution to the poor) and a library, and in 1740 a Şadirvan (fountain for
ritual ablutions), thus transforming it into a külliye, i.e. a social
complex. At the same time, a new sultan's lodge and a new mihrab were built
inside.
Renovation of 1847
Restoration of the Hagia
Sophia was ordered by Sultan Abdülmecid and completed by eight hundred
workers between 1847 and 1849, under the supervision of the Swiss-Italian architect brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati. The brothers consolidated the dome and
vaults, straightened the columns, and revised the decoration of the exterior
and the interior of the building. The mosaics in the upper gallery were exposed
and cleaned, although many were recovered "for protection against further
damage". The old chandeliers were replaced by new pendant ones.
New gigantic circular-framed disks or medallions were hung on columns. These
were inscribed with the names of Allah, Muhammad, the first four caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, and the two grandchildren of
Muhammad: Hassanand Hussain, by the calligrapher Kazasker
Mustafa İzzed Effendi (1801–1877). In 1850 the architects Fossati built a new sultan's
lodge or loge in a Neo-Byzantine
style connected to the royal
pavilion behind the mosque. They also renovated the minbar and mihrab. Outside the main building, the
minarets were repaired and altered so that they were of equal height. A timekeeper's building and a new madrasah (Islamic school) were built. When
the restoration was finished, the mosque was re-opened with ceremonial pomp on
13 July 1849.
Museum
(1935–present)
In 1935, the first Turkish President and
founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa
Kemal Atatürk, transformed the building into a museum. The carpets
were removed and marble floor decorations such as the Omphalion appeared for the
first time in centuries, while the white plaster covering many of the mosaics
was removed. Nevertheless, the condition of the structure deteriorated, and
the World
Monuments Fund placed Hagia Sophia on 1996
World Monuments Watch, and again in 1998.
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 had raised 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. 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 other
areas of Hagia Sophia continue to require significant stability improvement,
restoration and conservation. Hagia Sophia is currently (2014) the second
most visited museum in Turkey, attracting almost 3.3 million visitors annually.
Although use of the complex as a place of
worship (mosque or church) was strictly prohibited, in 2006 the Turkish
government allowed the allocation of a small room in the museum complex to be
used as a prayer room for Christian and Muslim museum staff, and since
2013 from the minarets of the museum the muezzin sings the call to prayer twice
per day, in the afternoon.
In 2007, Greek American politician Chris
Spirou launched an international organization "Free Agia Sophia
Council" championing the cause of restoring the building to its original
function as a Christian church. Since the early 2010s, several campaigns
and government high officials, notably Turkey's deputy prime minister Bülent
Arınç in November 2013, have been demanding that Hagia Sophia
be converted into a mosque again. In 2015, in retaliation for the
acknowledgment by Pope
Francis of the Armenian Genocide, the Mufti of
Ankara, Mefail Hızlı, stated that he believes the conversion of Hagia Sophia
into a mosque will be accelerated.
On 1 July 2016 Muslim prayers were held again
in the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years.
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 reconversion of the
museum into a mosque. On 21 June 2017 Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) organized a
special program, which included the recitation of the Quranand prayers in Hagia Sofia, to mark the Laylat al-Qadr, the program was
broadcast live by state-run television TRT.
On 31 March 2018 Turkish president Recep
Tayyip 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.
In March 2019 Erdoğan said that he will
change the status of Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque, adding that
it was a "very big mistake" to turn it into a museum. As a
UNESCO World Heritage site, this change would require approval from
UNESCO's World
Heritage Committee.
Timeline
of Hagia Sophia
·
360 –
Inauguration of Hagia Sophia, under the rule of Constantine
·
404 –
The original roof was destroyed in a fire.
·
415 –
Hagia Sophia was restored and rededicated by Theodosius II.
·
532 –
Hagia Sophia was burned down once again. The structure was completely destroyed
alongside various other churches. After a mere 93 days, construction of the
Hagia Sophia began.
·
537 –
The reconstruction was completed with the lavish decorations and ornaments
·
553 –
An earthquake shook Hagia Sophia, weakening the crown of Eastern arch.
·
558 –
Another earthquake hit, causing a break between the two halves. A few months
after, the main dome collapsed alongside the eastern semidome. This caused the
destruction of the ambo, ciborium, and the Holy Table.
·
562 –
Reconstruction was completed.
·
726 –
Hagia Sophia was stripped of religious illustrations and sculptural work.
·
842 –
St Sophia was finally re-installed. Commencing the redecoration of Hagia
Sophia.
·
859 –
A great fire damaged the Hagia Sophia.
·
869 –
An earthquake caused a half dome to collapse.
·
989 –
Another massive earthquake caused the collapse of the western dome.
·
994 –
Hagia Sophia was reopened after reconstruction took place.
·
1204
– Hagia Sophia became a Roman Catholic Cathedral.
·
1261
– Hagia Sophia was converted to an Orthodox Church again.
·
1344
– An earthquake caused severe damage throughout the striation
·
1346
– Various parts of the building collapsed and the church was closed.
·
1354
– Hagia Sophia reopened after construction.
·
1453
– Following the fall
of Constantinople, Mehmed
the Conqueror orders the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a
mosque. Τhe Divine Service in Hagia Sophia at the time of the
Salvation was interrupted.
·
1573
– The exterior was significantly strengthened and altered to follow the
customary mosque appearance.
·
1717
– Renovations on the interior began.
·
1734
– Hagia Sophia had additions to restorations, such as the building of a library
and a Quranic School.
·
1847
– The structure underwent another restoration.
·
1849
– The mosque was reopened.
·
1919
– Τhe Divine Service in Hagia Sophia, which had been interrupted after the
Salvation in 1453, was continued and completed by a Greek military priest.
·
1935
– The building was transformed into a museum.
·
2019
– Turkish President Erdogan again suggests converting Hagia Sophia into a
mosque.
Architecture
Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving
examples of Byzantine
architecture. Its interior is decorated with mosaics and marble pillars and coverings
of great artistic value. The temple itself was so richly and artistically
decorated that Justinian proclaimed, "Solomon, I have outdone
thee!" (Νενίκηκά σε Σολομών). Justinian himself 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 up until the completion of
the cathedral
in Seville in Spain.
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
Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Muslim worlds alike.
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).
At the western entrance side and eastern
liturgical side, there are arched openings extended by half domes of identical
diameter to the central dome, carried on smaller semi-domed exedras; 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).
Interior surfaces are sheathed with
polychrome marbles, green and white with purple porphyry,
and gold mosaics. The exterior, clad in stucco, was tinted yellow and red
during restorations in the 19th century at the direction of the Fossati
architects.
Narthex
and portals
The Imperial Gate was the main entrance
between the exo- and esonarthex. It was reserved exclusively for the Emperor.
The Byzantine mosaic above the portal depicts Christ and an unnamed emperor. A
long ramp from the northern part of the outer Narthex leads up to the upper
gallery.
Upper
gallery
Throughout history the Hagia Sophia has been
a victim to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, and has also fallen victim
to vandalism. Structural damage can easily be seen on its exterior
surface. To ensure that the Hagia Sophia did not ensue 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 GPR (ground
penetrating radar), 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.
The upper gallery is laid out in a horseshoe
shape that encloses the nave until 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.
Dome
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,
one of the first large-scale uses of them. The pendentives are the corners of
the square base of the dome, which curve upwards into the dome to support it,
restraining the lateral forces of the dome and allowing its weight to flow
downwards. It was the largest pendentive dome in the world until the
completion of St.
Peter's Basilica, and has a much lower height than any other dome of
such a large diameter.
The great dome at the Hagia Sophia is one
hundred and seven feet in diameter and is only two feet thick. The main
building material for the Hagia Sophia composed of brick and mortar. Brick
aggregate was used to make roofs easier to construct. The aggregate weighs one
hundred and fifty 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.
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 20 feet, in order to lower the lateral forces on the church walls. A
larger section of the second dome collapsed as well, in two episodes, so that
today only two sections of the present dome, in the north and south side, still
date 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.
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 raced to complete the building and
left no time for 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 six m (20 feet) 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.
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 lowers its weight.
Minarets
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: أَذَان) and announcements. Mehmed had built a minaret
made from wood 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
Fatih Sultan Mehmed period or Beyazıd II period. The other three were built
from white limestone and sandstone, of which the slender northeast column was
erected by Sultan Bayezid
II during the Selim II period, while the two identical larger
minarets to the west were erected by Sultan Selim II and designed by the
famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. Both are 60 metres in
height, and with their thick and massif 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.
Buttresses
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, are actually built during the Byzantine era. This shows that
the Byzantines had prior knowledge of flying buttresses which can also be seen
at Hosios
Loukas in Central Greece, the Rotunda
of Galerius in Thessaloniki, and San
Vitale in Ravenna.[75] Other
buttresses were constructed during the Ottoman times under the guidance of the
architect Sinan.
A total of 24 buttresses were added.
Notable
elements and decorations
Originally, under Justinian's reign, the
interior decorations consisted of abstract designs on marble slabs on the walls
and floors, as well as mosaics on the curving vaults. Of these mosaics, one can
still see the two archangels Gabriel and Michael in
the spandrels of the bema. There were already a few figurative decorations, as
attested by the eulogy of Paul the
Silentiary. The spandrels (corners) of the gallery are faced in
inlaid thin slabs (opus sectile), showing
patterns and figures of flowers and birds in precisely cut pieces of white
marble set against a background of black marble. In later stages, figurative
mosaics were added, which were destroyed during the iconoclastic
controversy (726–843). Present mosaics are from the
post-iconoclastic period.
Apart from the mosaics, a large number of
figurative decorations were added during the second half of the 9th century: an
image of Christ in the central dome; Orthodox saints, prophets and Church Fathers in the tympana below;
historical figures connected with this church, such as Patriarch Ignatius; some scenes from the gospel in the
galleries. Basil IIlet
artists paint on each of the four pendentives a giant six-winged cherub.The Ottomans covered their
face with a golden halo, but
in 2009 one of them was restored to the original state.
Loggia
of the Empress
The Loggia of the Empress is located in the
centre of the upper enclosure, or gallery, of the Hagia Sophia. From there the
empress and the court-ladies would watch the proceedings down below. A round
green stone marks the spot where the throne of the empress stood.
Lustration
urns
Two huge marble lustration (ritual
purification) urns were brought from Pergamon during the reign of
Sultan Murad III. From the Hellenistic
period, they are carved from single blocks of marble.
Marble
Door
The Marble Door inside the Hagia Sophia is
located in the southern upper enclosure or gallery. It was used by the
participants in synods, who entered and left the
meeting chamber through this door. It is said that each side is symbolic
and that one side represents heaven while the other represents hell. Its panels
are covered in fruits and fish motives. The door opens into a space that was
used as a venue for solemn meetings and important resolutions of patriarchate
officials.
The
Nice Door
The Nice Door is the oldest architectural
element found in the Hagia Sophia dating back to the 2nd century BC. The
decorations are of reliefs of geometric shapes as well as plants that are
believed to have come from a pagan temple in Tarsus, Mersin now modern-day
Turkey. It was incorporated into the building by Emperor
Theophilos in 838 where it is placed in the south exit in the
inner narthex.
The
Emperor Door
The Emperor Door is the door that would be
used solely by the Emperor as well as his personal bodyguard and retinue. It is
the largest door in the Hagia Sophia and has been dated to the 6th century. It
is about 7 meters long and Eastern Roman sources say it was made with wood
from Noah's
Ark.
Wishing
column
At the northwest of the building, there is a
column with a hole in the middle covered by bronze plates. This column goes by
different names; the perspiring column, the wishing column, the sweating column
or the crying column. The column is said to be damp when touched and have
supernatural powers.The legend states that since St.
Gregory the Miracle Worker appeared near the column in the year
1200, it has been moist. It is believed that touching the moisture cures many
illnesses.
Mosaics
The first mosaics which adorned the church
were completed during the reign of Justin II. Many of the
non-figurative mosaics in the church come from this period. Most of the
mosaics, however, were created in the 10th and 12th centuries, following
the periods of Byzantine
Iconoclasm.
During the Sack of Constantinople in
1204, the Latin Crusaders vandalized valuable items in every important
Byzantine structure of the city, including the golden mosaics of the Hagia
Sophia. Many of these items were shipped to Venice, whose Doge, Enrico Dandolo, had organized the
invasion and sack of Constantinople after an agreement with Prince Alexios
Angelos, the son of a deposed Byzantine emperor.
19th-century restoration
Following the building's conversion into a
mosque in 1453, many of its mosaics were covered with plaster, due to Islam's
ban on representational imagery. This process was not completed at once, and
reports exist from the 17th century in which travelers note that they could
still see Christian images in the former church. In 1847–1849, the building was
restored by two Swiss-Italian Fossati brothers, Gaspare and
Giuseppe, and Sultan Abdülmecid allowed them to
also document any mosaics they might discover during this process which were
later archived in Swiss libraries. This work did not include repairing the mosaics and after
recording the details about an image, the Fossatis painted it over again. The
Fossatis restored the mosaics of the two hexapteryga (singular Greek: ἑεξαπτέρυγον, pr. hexapterygon, six-winged angel; it is uncertain
whether they are seraphim or cherubim) located on the two east
pendentives, covering their faces again before the end of the restoration. The
other two placed on the west pendentives are copies in paint created by the
Fossatis since they could find no surviving remains of them. As in
this case, the architects reproduced in paint damaged decorative mosaic
patterns, sometimes redesigning them in the process. The Fossati records are
the primary sources about a number of mosaic images now believed to have been
completely or partially destroyed in the 1894
Istanbul earthquake. These include a mosaic over a
now-unidentified Door of the Poor,
a large image of a jewel-encrusted cross, and a large number of images of
angels, saints, patriarchs, and church fathers. Most of the missing images were
located in the building's two tympana.
One mosaic they documented is Christ
Pantocrator in a circle, which would indicate it to be a
ceiling mosaic, possibly even of the main dome which was later covered and
painted over with Islamic calligraphy that expounds God as the light of the
universe. The drawings of the Hagia Sophia mosaics are today kept in the
Cantonal Archive of Ticino.
20th-century restoration
A large number of 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.
In 2000, The National Technical University of
Athens has begun to use Non-Destructive Techniques along with infrared
technology to scan walls of the Hagia Sophia to locate and assess damage to
mosaics that have been previously covered with plaster. The National Technical
University of Athens uses categories such as water intrusion to determine a
mosaics current state of condition.
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).
The Hagia Sophia has been a victim to natural
disasters that have caused deterioration to the buildings structure and walls.
The deterioration of the Hagia Sophia's walls can be directly relate to salt
crystallization. The crystallization of salt is due to an intrusion of
rainwater that is at fault for the Hagia Sophia's deteriorating inner and outer
walls. Diverting excess rainwater is the main solution to solve the
deteriorating walls at the Hagia Sophia.
Built between 532–537 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.
Imperial Gate mosaic
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 jeweled throne,
giving His blessing and holding in His left hand an open book. The text on
the book reads as follows: "Peace be with you. I am the light of the
world". (John 20:19; 20:26; 8:12) On each side of Christ's shoulders is a
circular medallion: on His left the Archangel Gabriel, holding a staff, on His right His Mother Mary.
Southwestern entrance mosaic
The southwestern entrance mosaic, situated in
the tympanum of the southwestern entrance, dates from the reign of Basil II. It was rediscovered
during the restorations of 1849 by the Fossatis. The Virgin sits on a throne
without a back, her feet resting on a pedestal, embellished with precious
stones. The Child
Christ sits on her lap, giving His blessing and holding a
scroll in His left hand. On her left side stands emperor Constantine in
ceremonial attire, presenting a model of the city to Mary. The inscription next
to him says: "Great emperor Constantine of the Saints". On her right
side stands emperor Justinian
I, offering a model of the Hagia Sophia. The medallions on both
sides of the Virgin's head carry the monograms MP and ΘΥ, an
abbreviation of "Mētēr"
and "Theou", meaning
"Mother of God".
Apse mosaics
The Virgin and Child mosaic
was the first of the post-iconoclastic mosaics. It was inaugurated on 29 March
867 by Patriarch
Photius and
the emperors Michael III and Basil I. This mosaic is situated in a high
location on the half dome of the apse. Mary is sitting on a throne without a
back, holding the Child Jesus on her lap. Her feet rest on a pedestal. Both the
pedestal and the throne are adorned with precious stones. The portraits of the
archangels Gabriel and Michael (largely destroyed) in the bema of the arch also date from the 9th
century. The mosaics are set against the original golden background of the 6th
century. These mosaics were believed to be a reconstruction of the mosaics of
the 6th century that were previously destroyed during the iconoclastic era by
the Byzantines of that time, as represented in the inaugural sermon by the
patriarch Photios. However, no record of figurative decoration of Hagia Sophia
exists before this time.
Emperor Alexander mosaic
The Emperor Alexander mosaic
is not easy to find for the first-time visitor, located on the second floor in
a dark corner of the ceiling. It depicts Emperor Alexander in full regalia, holding a scroll
in his right hand and a globus cruciger in his left. A drawing by the
Fossatis showed that the mosaic survived until 1849 and that Thomas Whittemore, founder of the Byzantine
Institute of America who was granted permission to preserve the mosaics, assumed that
it had been destroyed in the earthquake of 1894. Eight years after his death,
the mosaic was discovered in 1958 largely through the researches of Robert
Van Nice.
Unlike most of the other mosaics in Hagia Sophia, which had been covered over
by ordinary plaster, the Alexander mosaic was simply painted over and reflected
the surrounding mosaic patterns and thus was well hidden. It was duly cleaned
by the Byzantine Institute's successor to Whittemore, Paul
A. Underwood.
Empress Zoe mosaic
The Empress Zoe mosaic on
the eastern wall of the southern gallery date from the 11th century. Christ
Pantocrator, clad in the dark blue robe (as is the custom in Byzantine art), is
seated in the middle against a golden background, giving His blessing with the
right hand and holding the Bible in His left hand. On either side of His head are
the monograms IC and XC, meaning Iēsous Christos. He is flanked
by Constantine
IX Monomachus and Empress Zoe, both in ceremonial costumes. He is
offering a purse, as a symbol of donation, he made to the church, while she is
holding a scroll, symbol of the donations she made. The inscription over the
head of the emperor says: "Constantine, pious emperor in Christ the God,
king of the Romans, Monomachus". The inscription over the head of the
empress reads as follows: "Zoë, the very pious Augusta". The previous
heads have been scraped off and replaced by the three present ones. Perhaps the
earlier mosaic showed her first husband Romanus III Argyrus or her second husband Michael
IV. Another theory is that
this mosaic was made for an earlier emperor and empress, with their heads
changed into the present ones.
Comnenus mosaic
The Comnenus mosaic, also
located on the eastern wall of the southern gallery, dates from 1122. The
Virgin Mary is standing in the middle, depicted, as usual in Byzantine art, in
a dark blue gown. She holds the Child Christ on her lap. He gives His blessing
with His right hand while holding a scroll in His left hand. On her right side
stands emperor John II Comnenus, represented in a garb embellished with
precious stones. He holds a purse, symbol of an imperial donation to the
church. Empress Irene stands on the left side of the
Virgin, wearing ceremonial garments and offering a document. Their eldest
son Alexius
Comnenus is
represented on an adjacent pilaster. He is shown as a beardless youth, probably
representing his appearance at his coronation aged seventeen. In this panel,
one can already see a difference with the Empress Zoe mosaic that is one
century older. There is a more realistic expression in the portraits instead of
an idealized representation. The Empress, Saint Irene (born Piroska), daughter of Ladislaus
I of Hungary is shown with plaited blond hair, rosy cheeks, and grey eyes,
revealing her Hungarian descent. The emperor is depicted in a dignified manner.
Deësis mosaic
The Deësis mosaic (Δέησις,
"Entreaty") probably dates from 1261. It was commissioned to mark the
end of 57 years of Roman Catholic use and the return to the Orthodox faith. It
is the third panel situated in the imperial enclosure of the upper galleries.
It is widely considered the finest in Hagia Sophia, because of the softness of
the features, the humane expressions and the tones of the mosaic. The style is
close to that of the Italian painters of the late 13th or early 14th century,
such as Duccio. In this panel the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist (Ioannes Prodromos), both shown in three-quarters
profile, are imploring the intercession of Christ Pantocrator for humanity
on Judgment
Day. The bottom part of this mosaic is badly deteriorated. This
mosaic is considered as the beginning of the Renaissance in Byzantine pictorial
art.
Northern tympanum mosaics
The northern tympanum mosaics
feature various saints. They have been able to survive due to the very high and
unreachable location. They depict Saints John Chrysostom and Ignatius the Younger standing, clothed in white robes
with crosses, and holding richly jeweled Holy Bibles. The names of each saint
are given around the figures in Greek, in order to enable an identification for
the visitor. 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.
Dome Angel Figure Mosaic
This features four unidentical angel figures.
It is believed that these on headed six winged angels, also known as Seraphim,
protect the Lord's throne in heaven. There are angels in the east composed in
mosaics as where the ones in the west were damaged during the Eastern Roman
Period, they have been renewed as fresco. During the Ottoman period the angels
faces were covered with metallic lids in the shape of stars, but were removed
to reveal the faces in 2009 during renovations.
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