Class Powerpoint on the Hagia Sophia by Emre at Bilfen Schools, Istanbul, Turkey

HAGHIA SOPHIAHAGHIA SOPHIA

Sophia meaning “wisdom" to which is added the adjective «Saint», to form the phrase "Divine Wisdom”.

It is said that Constantine built a church on the site of the present Saint Sophia in 325; surer sources have it that his son founded a

sanctuary there in 360. This was destroyed by Eire in 404 and Theodosius II had it rebuilt in 415; but in the course of revolutions

which shook the throne and divided the nation into two warring factions the Greens and the Blues, the temple was razed to the

ground. It was then that Justinian decided to have a masterpiece, a work of unparalleled magnificence erected on this site. On

February 29, 532, after a period of 39 days, he set his seal on the first stone of his new sanctuary.

Haghia Sophia, the "Church of Holy Wisdom", was built by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. More than 1400 years old, Haghia Sophia covers a total area of 7570 square meters and is over 100 metres long.

Never again did the Byzantines attempt to build anything approaching the scale of Haghia Sophia.

After 916 years as a church, Haghia Sophia was converted into a mosque in 1453, shortly after the conquest. Apart from whitewashing the paintings and mosaics and removing the Christian icons and statues, the Turks left Haghia Sophia untouched. They committed no acts of destruction as the eighth and

ninth century Christian iconoclasts had done. In 1935 the church was transformed into a museum.

Five doors led into the outer narthex, the largest in the centre reserved for the emperor and members of his family. At the entrance to the narthex is a mosaic depicting Constantine and Justinian presenting the walled city of constantinople and Haghia Sophia respectively to the Virgin Mary, who holds the infant Christ in her arms. Other mosaics depict the angel Gabriel, the angel Michael, three saints: St.Ignatius, St. John Chrysostom, St. Ignatius Theophorus. Any siver, gold or jewels which were in Haghia Sophia were plundered by the Latins of the Fourth Crusade who occupied Istanbul in 1204 and ruled here for over a century

In the upper galleries known as the gynaceum, there are several mosaic panels representing the Emperor Alexander, the Empress Zoe and her third husband Constantine IX, the Emperor John Comnenus and his wife Eirene. Near the Deesis mosaic is the tomb of Dandalo,

Doge of Venice, one of the leaders of the Fourth Crusade. Another indication of reverence in which the Turks held Haghia Sophia is the collection of royal tombs in the precinct. The tombs of Mustafa I, Sultan Ibrahim, Selim II, Murat III and Mehmet III are all worth visiting.

The face of the east wall of the inner Narthex is covered right up to the ceiling with antique coloured marbles of great value; the interior of the building, surmounted by a most imposing dome, is reached by way of nine doorways. These nine gates give access to the heart of the church; the fifth of them, and the highest of all, was that used by the Emperor. Flanking it on either side was a guard-post where two retainers kept watch. Time, and the long hours of guard duty, has worn the stone, and the weight of the armed men who kept watch there has left a hollow place. The sight of it reminds us how vain are human pretensions and how fleeting our life on this earth, and awakens sad and heavy thoughts in us.

Our first sensation on entering is of the great height and lofty proportions of the building. Saint Sophia, with its heavy and rather forbidding external aspect, gives no intimation of the splendour and nobility of its interior. The length of the interior is 81,8O metres, that of the inner Narthex 10,50 metres, and the outer Narthex 6,60 metres making a total, when the thickness of the walls is added, of 101 metres. With its area of 7,570 square metres, it is fourth in size among the world's cathedrals, coming after St.Paul's in London St. Peter's in Rome, and the Milan Duomo. It must be remembered however, that these chuches were built at a later date: in its century Saint Sophia was the greatest monument the world had ever seen.

Let us advance now into the middle of the cathedral. The Great Dome claims our attention immediately; no visitor, no matter what his religion or race, can fail to be

impressed by its scale and splendour.

After the restoration of the dome in 1847, the calligrapher Mustafa Izzet Efendi inscribed on it a verse for posterity in gilded Arabic characters.

This superb dome which seems in its remoteness to belong to the sky rather than the earth, can only be properly viewed from below by taking as reference points the marks cut into the stone; these are fixed in relation to a central point immediately below the

apex of the vault, and mark the extent of the contour. The dome is 55 metres 60 cms in height; one side measures 30 metres 876 mms. to the centre, the other 31 metres 877

mms. Thus dome does not form a perfect circle. In the beginning the circumference was exactly regular and the dome somewhat more sharply inclined, but at its restoration, in

order to strengthen it further, the present shape was imposed on it, it should not be forgotten that Saint Sophia has suffered damage from several earthquakes and has

been frequently repaired.

The first great damage occured in 558. In January 369 after earth tremors lasting 40 days, the dome threatened to cave in. In 986 the dome seemed increasingly on the point of collapse, and the church was closed to the faithful for ten years while expensive repairs were carried out, at a cost of 10,000 Byzantine gold pieces. After this it was reopened for worship; but in 1346, vault subsided again, and lack of funds precented any repair, so that the church remained deserted. Formerly the church possessed a great many costly ornaments, doors covered with plated silver, columns of rare marble ringed with bands of silver, valuable Ikons framed in gold, massive silver chandeliers, challices and other sacramental articles, golden candlesticks hassoks sewn with silver thread, altar clothes of the same material, all of a dazzling richness. The greatest destruction of all these rare objects took place during the pillages of the 4th Crusade, when the Latins devastated the city. The marble fitments of the interior, the frames of gold and silver, doors and other parts of the sanctuary were lifted out bodily, and the precious metals melted down. Rarely has there been anything to equal this looting of the Crusaders in the year 1204!

A Russian priest visiting Byzantium in 1350 describes the appalling evidences of destruction he saw in the plundered city.

The Castilian Ambassador Don Clavijo relates when he was passing through the city in 1402, he saw the gates of the desecrated Basilica lying abandoned on the ground.

In 1453 when the Turks took Constantinople they found Saint Sophia in this condition. Sultan Fatih the Conqueror converted the ancient sanctuary into a mosque and was the first to utter there the ritual prayer of the faithful. At first the mosque was provided with a wooden minaret, later replaced by one in stone. The building was reinforced with buttresses and a mihrab was consecrated in the interior. Beyazit II, the son of Mehmet II the Conqueror, added a second minaret to the mosque of Saint Sophia.

Under the reign of Selim II, the conqueror of Cyprus, some sliding of the foundations was noticed, and certain buildings in the vicinity had to the demolished, the stones of which were set to build pyramidal supports for the walls of the mosque, while steps were taken to preserve the matchless dome. The work of restoration was undertaken by the great architect Sinan. This same Sultan had a school and a mausoleum erected and a garden lay out in the precincts of St. Sophia.

The Sultans Selim I and Murad III added two further minarets; in 1717 Ahmet II carried out fundamental repairs onthe mosque.

It was between 1847 and 1849, in the Osmanli Era, that important restorations were undertaken, presided over by the Swiss architect Gaspar Fossati, who reinforced the dome with a framework of iron, and protected the mosaics from damp by covering them lightly with lime, thus also observing the due forms prescribed by the moslem religion; in addition he consolidated the columns.

On the initiative of the Grand Resit Pasa, the organizer of this important restoration, a sum of 200,000 Turkish gold liras was devoted to the gigantic task.

An earthquake of 1895 caused some damage to the mosque which was repaired two years later.

The founder of the Turkish Republic, Ataturk, Ataturk a man of genius, foremost among statesmen, and profound humanist, removed from Saint Sophia its religious character by transforming it into a museum in 1935 thus putting It at the service of all humanity. From 1926 - university professors of high repute supervised a

fundamental, rational restoration of Saint Sophia; the dome was once again reinforced, this time with steel hoops, and the

effects of humidity were removed. In 1931 the American Association of the Preservation of

Byzantine Monuments undertook the cleaning of the mosaics, and since 1955, thanks to funds granted for this purpose,

Ayasofya has always been kept under inspection and restored as the need arose.

Let us look about us now, dismissing for a while the memories that this famous dome has

evoked... Let us consider the history of Ephesus, Baalbek, Heliopolis, with their

marbles of green and red rising now around us in Byzantine columns, the acanthus leaves

seeming to stir overhead, and reveal the royal monograms of Justinian and Theodora! Facing us, at the entrance to what was a sanctuary;

we see the Turkish «mihrab» which has replaced the ancient apsis. The huge circular frames, hanging high above us at the level of

the upper gallery, date from tire Osmanli period and enclose with their green circles the green circles the holy names of God, the prophet Mohamet and holy names of God, the prophet Mohamet and

the Khalifs, traced in golden characters - a the Khalifs, traced in golden characters - a memory of the vanished era of the Ottomans.memory of the vanished era of the Ottomans.

The Pulpit (Minber) close by the «mihrab» is of exquisively chiselled stone, a fine example

of Turkish carving. The glass panes in the windows are the work of Turkish craftsmen.

The right of us as we look towards the «mihrab» is wealth of decoration; it is within

here the Sultan attended religious ceremonies. It too was restored in 1847 by the Swiss

architect Fossati.

The upper gallery runs along three walls of the building those of the north, south and east; the west face is a plain wall without galleries.

There are two doors in the south gallery, one of which is reputed to lead to Heaven and the other to Hell. After an empty space, we come to a door on the right leading into a chapel, the exact spot where the officiating priest we spoke of earlier is said to have disappeared. From here we reach the room where the council used to assemble. Some subsidence is noticeable here but there is no danger.

From the wall on our right St. Sophia's most magnificent mosaics greet our sight. Let us turn to get a good look at this marvel, one of the finest existing specimens of Byzantine mosaic. Jesus is depicted, not with the deathly lineaments habitual in medieval presentations of him but full of life and glowing with health. On one side of him is, Mary, on the other St. John.