The emperor Constantine transferred the capital of his empire in 330 A.D. from Rome to Constantinople. Hagia Sophia was built by the Emperor Justinian. Construction began in 532 and was completed by 537. This great basilica was the crowning architectural achievement of his reign. It amazed me that all mosques in this Moslem country seem to have as their architectural inspiration, this great Christian Basilica. It was the Vatican of the Eastern Churches.

Until the 15th century, no building incorporated a floor space so vast under one roof. Sixth century historian Procopius marveled that it "does not appear to rest upon a solid foundation, but to cover the place beneath as though suspended from heaven by a golden chain."

I had thought that Hagia Sophia’s great Christian mosaics had been destroyed by the iconoclastic Moslems when they turned the church into a mosque in 1453, but historians now say that Justinian’s wife Theodora was iconoclastic, so the original building, in deference to her, probably contained none of its figurative mosaics until the 9th century when the Christian iconoclastic period ended.

At that time Christian artists were commissioned to adorn the church to make up for lost time. Medieval pilgrims were awed by the splendid mosaics of this basilica. Four acres of golden glass cubes --millions of them-- studded the interior to form a glittering canopy overhead, each one set at a subtly different angle to reflect the flicker of candles and oil lamps that illuminated nocturnal ceremonies. Forty thousand pounds of silver encrusted the sanctuary. [Smithsonian, Dec 2008, p. 58]

For more than 900 years, Hagia Sophia was the most important building in the Christian world. It was the cathedral of the Orthodox patriarch, counterpart to the pope in Rome, and the central church of the Byzantine emperors.

It was converted into a mosque by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453. The Turkish sultan’s armies broke through the great wood and bronze doors, bringing an end to an empire that had endured for over a thousand years. The Sultan's balcony shown here has been restored. with a fresh coat of paint. “For the Byzantines, when Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, in the 15th century, it was the end of the world… The story goes that the priests who were saying Mass on that day, disappeared into Hagia Sophia’s walls and would re-emerge someday in a glorious future to reappear, restored to life in a reborn empire. In the meantime, the church stands as a museum, awaiting its rebirth.