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Hagia Sophia

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Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia (Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία; Holy Wisdom), now known as the Ayasofya Museum, was the greatest Christian cathedral of the Middle Ages,[1][2] later converted into an imperial mosque in 1453 by the Ottoman Empire,[3] and into a museum in 1935. It is located in Constantinople, Turkey, on the Turkish Thrace. It is regularly considered one of the greatest and most beautiful buildings in history. Its conquest by the Ottomans at the fall of Constantinople is considered one of the great tragedies of Christianity by the Greek Orthodox faithful.

The name comes from the Greek name Ἁγία Σοφία, a contraction of Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, meaning "Church of the Holy Wisdom of God". It is also known as Sancta Sophia in Latin and Ayasofya in Turkish. Although it is sometimes called "Saint Sophia" in English, it is not named after a saint named Sophia — the Greek word sophia means "wisdom."

It was constructed in five years, from 532 to 537, at the orders of Emperor Justinian I and designed by Isidore of Miletus.[citation needed]

Description

Hagia Sophia at night

Hagia Sophia is covered by a central dome which has a diameter of 31.87 meters and a height from floor level of 55.60 meters, slightly smaller than the dome of the Pantheon. The dome seems rendered weightless by the unbroken arcade of arched windows under it, which help flood the colourful interior with light.

The dome is carried on pendentives — four concave triangular sections of masonry which solve the problem of setting the circular base of a dome on a rectangular base. At Hagia Sophia the weight of the dome passes through the pendentives to four massive piers at the corners. Between them the dome seems to float upon four great arches.

At the western (entrance) and eastern (liturgical) ends, the arched openings are extended by half domes carried on smaller semidomed exedras. Thus a hierarchy of dome-headed elements builds up to create a vast oblong interior crowned by the main dome, a sequence unexampled in antiquity. All interior surfaces are sheathed with polychrome marbles, green and white with purple porphyry and gold mosaics, encrusted upon the brick. On the exterior, simple stuccoed walls reveal the clarity of massed vaults and domes.

Construction

A section of the original architecture of Hagia Sophia

Nothing remains of the first church that was built on this location, known as the Megala Ekklessia (Great Church) and inaugurated by Constantius II in 360. During the riots of 404, the first church was largely burned and a second church was ordered by Theodosius II, who inaugurated it in October 405. Several marble blocks of this second church, which was destroyed during the Nika Revolt of 532, have survived to our date, and are displayed in the garden of the current (third) church, which was designed by architects Isidorus and Anthemius, and built with much larger dimensions in comparison to the previous two churches, under the personal supervision of Emperor Justinian I, who dedicated it on December 27, 537.

Justinian chose the physicist, Isidore of Miletus and the mathematician, Anthemius of Tralles as architects; Anthemius, however, died within the first year. The construction is described in Procopius' On Buildings (De Aedificiis). The Byzantine poet Paul the Silentiary composed an extant poetic ekphrasis, probably for the rededication of 563, which followed the collapse of the main dome during an earthquake in 558 and its subsequent reconstruction, completed in 562. The current dome, which dates from 562, is 6.25 meters higher than the original dome built in 537, thus giving the building its current interior height of 55.60 meters.[4]

After the great earthquake in 989, which ruined the dome of Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine government asked for the Armenian architect Trdat, creator of the great churches of Ani and Agine, to repair the dome.[5]

In the 16th century, during the reign of Selim II, the building started showing signs of fatigue and was extensively strengthened with the addition of structural supports to its exterior by the great Ottoman architect Sinan who is also considered one of the first earthquake engineers in the world. In addition to strengthening the historic Byzantine structure, Sinan built one of the minarets, the original sultan's loge, and the mausoleum of Selim II to the southeast of the building (then a mosque) in 1577. The mausoleums of Murad III and Mehmed III were built next to it in the 1600s.

Mahmud I ordered the restoration of the building in 1739 and added an ablution fountain, a Koranic school, a soup kitchen and library, thus transforming it into a külliye, i.e. a social complex.

The most famous restoration of the Hagia Sophia was ordered by Sultan Abdülmecid and completed 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.

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 the marble floor decorations appeared for the first time in centuries, while the white plaster which covered the mosaics were peeled off with the long and careful work of experts.

Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture. Of great artistic value was its decorated interior with mosaics and marble pillars and coverings. The temple itself was so richly and artistically decorated that Justinian proclaimed "Solomon, I have surpassed 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.

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. Under Justinian's orders, eight Corinthian columns were disassembled from Baalbek, Lebanon and shipped to Constantinople for the construction of Hagia Sophia.[6]

Interior of the Hagia Sophia, February 2007

The dome of Hagia Sophia has spurred particular interest for many art historians and architects because of the innovative way the original architects envisioned the dome. The dome is supported by pendentives which had never been used before the building of this structure. The pendentive enables the round dome to transition gracefully into the square shape of the piers below. The pendentives not only achieve a pleasing aesthetic quality, but they also restrain the lateral forces of the dome and allow the weight of the dome to flow downward.

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 weakened the walls. The structure would have been more stable if the builders at least let the mortar cure before they began the next layer; however, they did not do this. When the dome was placed atop the building, the weight of the dome caused the walls to lean outward because of the wet mortar underneath. When Isidorus the Younger rebuilt the original dome, he had to first build up the interior of the walls so that they were vertical in order to support the weight of the new dome. Another probable change in the design of the dome when it was rebuilt was the actual height of the dome. Isidore the Younger raised the height of the dome by approximately twenty feet so that the lateral forces would not be as strong and the weight of the dome would flow more easily down the walls.

A second interesting fact about the original structure of the dome was how the architects were able to place forty windows around the base of the dome. Hagia Sophia is famous for the mystical quality of light that reflects everywhere in the interior of the nave, which gives the dome the appearance of hovering above the nave. This design is possible because the dome is shaped like a scalloped shell or the inside of an umbrella with ribs that extend from the top of the dome 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.

The anomalies in the design of Hagia Sophia show how this structure is one of the most advanced and ambitious monuments of late antiquity.

History

Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople and a principal setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies.

The structure has been severely damaged several times by earthquakes. The dome collapsed after an earthquake in 558 and was replaced in 562, while the reparation works were completed a year later, in 563, when the building was rededicated. There were additional partial collapses in 989 after which an Armenian architect named Trdat was commissioned to repair the damage. In the 16th century, during the reign of Selim II, the building started showing signs of fatigue and was extensively strengthened with the addition of structural supports to its exterior by the great Ottoman architect Sinan who is also considered one of the first earthquake engineers in the world.

During the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–1261) the church became a Roman Catholic cathedral. Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice who commanded the sack and invasion of the city by the Latin Crusaders in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, is buried inside the church. The tomb inscription carrying his name, which has become a part of the floor decoration, received numerous spits from the angry Byzantines who recaptured Constantinople in 1261.

Immediately after the Turks conquered Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque.

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 the marble floor decorations appeared for the first time in centuries, while the white plaster which covered the mosaics were peeled off with the long and careful work of experts.

The building was restored and repaired numerous times by Ottoman architects. The most famous and extensive work was done by Mimar Sinan, one of the most famous architects in history, in the 16th century, which included the addition of structural supports to the exterior of the building, the replacement of the old minarets with the minarets that stand today, and the addition of Islamic pulpits and art.

For almost 500 years the principal mosque of Istanbul, Ayasofya served as a model for many of the Ottoman mosques such as the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, and the Rüstem Pasha Mosque.

Mosaics

During the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, the Latin Crusaders vandalized the valuable items in every important Byzantine structure of the city, including the golden mosaics of the Hagia Sophia. Much of these valuable items were shipped to Venice, whose Doge, Enrico Dandolo, had organized the invasion and sack of Constantinople.

Following the building's conversion into a mosque in 1453, many of its mosaics were destroyed or 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 travellers note that they could still see Christian images in the former church. In 1847-49, the building was restored by two Swiss brothers, Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati, and Sultan Abdülmecid allowed them to also document any mosaics they might discover during this process. This work did not include repairing the mosaics and after recording the details about an image, the Fossatis painted it over again. This work included covering the previously uncovered faces of two seraphim mosaics located in the centre of the building. The building currently features a total of four of these images and two of them are restorations in paint created by the Fossatis to replace two images of which they could find no surviving remains. In other cases, the Fossatis recreated damaged decorative mosaic patterns in paint, 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 an earthquake in 1894. These include a great mosaic of Christ Pantocrator in the dome, a mosaic over a now unidentified Door of the Poor, a large image of a jewel-encrustred 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. The Fossatis also added a pulpit (minbar) and the four large medallions on the walls of the nave bearing the names of Muhammad and Islam's first caliphs.

The interior of the dome undergoing restoration.

20th-century restoration

A large number of mosaics were uncovered in the 1930s by a team from the American Byzantine Institute 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.

Due to its long history as both a church and a mosque, a particular challenge arises in the restoration process. The Christian iconographic mosaics are being gradually uncovered. However, in order to do so, important, historic Islamic art would have to be destroyed. 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).

Trivia

Hagia Sophia is featured in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia With Love where Bond's lover Tatiana Romanova slips Bond small blueprints of Istanbul's Russian consulate where Bond needs to steal the Lektor communication device. The Hagia Sophia is also seen in background shots in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.

As seen in the photo, one of the minarets (at southwest) was built from red brick while the other three were built from white marble; of which the slender one at northeast was erected by Sultan Bayezid II while the two larger minarets at west were erected by Sultan Selim II and designed by the famous Ottoman architect Sinan. The reason for the varying dimensions and mass of the minarets was to counterweight the main structure's mass and distribute the weight uniformly. This application by Mimar Sinan was one of the earliest seismic and geotechnical engineering efforts in the world. Latest research shows that without the counterweight of the minarets, the main structure would tend to collapse.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hagia Sophia.

Photos and paintings

References

  • Mainstone, Rowland J. (1997). Hagia Sophia: Architecture, Structure, and Liturgy of Justinian's Great Church (reprint edition). W W Norton & Co Inc. ISBN 0-500-27945-4.
  • Hagia Sophia Church, also known as Church of Holy Wisdom.

Notes

  1. ^ [1], [2]
  2. ^ CityGuide Turkey: Constantinople - Hagia Sophia[3]
  3. ^ [4]
  4. ^ Emporis: Haghia Sophia
  5. ^ Gevork Nazaryan - The gifted architect Trdat
  6. ^ Baalbek keeps its secrets

41°00′31″N 28°58′48″E / 41.0085°N 28.9800°E / 41.0085; 28.9800

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