Hagia Sophia

[Ludovicus]

A few days ago on a thread I can't locate someone posted that the former magnificent Christian Church of the Hagia Sophia in Istambul (formerly Constantinople) is now a mosque. This is not the case. Though quickly turned into one after the fall of Constantinople, under the Turkish Republic the old church is now a state museum (Ayasofya Museum) that displays the building's Islamic and Christian past.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia

 

Here is a good rendering of the old church, from a Turkish website on the city of Constantinople in 1200.

 

http://www.byzantium1200.com/hagia.html

 

You'll want to take a look at all the old buildings on the same website.

Edited May 31, 2007 by Ludovicus

[Northern Neil]

...the old church is now a state museum (Ayasofya Museum) that displays the building's Islamic and Christian past.

 

Here is a good rendering of the old church, from a Turkish website on the city of Constantinople in 1200.

 

http://www.byzantium1200.com/hagia.html

 

You'll want to take a look at all the old buildings on the same website.

 

What a marvellous website! These reconstructions are awesome. Ayasofya is indeed a museum. The mosaics and icons were never destroyed by the muslims, just covered in a thin layer of plaster. In the '30's the Turkish government funded the careful restoration of these treasures.

[Kosmo]

Sadly, most mosaics and other christian decorations are gone. They indeed recovered some of them from under the plaster layer but probably all wall surfaces were decorated while now most are not.

Is still very much worth seeing.

For it's oldness, place in history, model for countless church and mosques and it's countinous use I consider it the most important building still standing.