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Hagia Sophia

— One of the oldest churches in the world, the Hagia Sophia has survived invasions, conversions and earthquakes since it was finished in 537AD.”

In 532 a riot broke out in Constantinople. The public had never been afraid to vent its anger in the Eastern Empire and a chariot race at the Hippodrome was the origin of widespread unrest.

During the following week, much of the city burned and thousands of people were killed. Within a short distance from the Hippodrome, the church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) was rased by fire.

Solomon, I have outdone thee!

Emperor Justinian’s ambitious reign was shaken by the disturbances. He was busy with a peace mission to Persia and he had not contended with such troubles on his own doorstep.

Justinian ordered the reconstruction of Hagia Sophia on an unprecedented scale and the builders ransacked ancient sites for fine materials with which to confer greatness on the new structure.

The structure of the new Hagia Sophia was completed in only five years. So impressed was he with the interior decoration that the Emperor was quoted as having said: “Solomon, I have outdone thee!”

Two earthquakes twenty years later precipitated the collapse of the main dome, which was reconstructed taller and with lighter materials. Since then the structure has remained more or less intact, making Hagia Sophia one of the oldest surviving churches in the world.

Legacy

As a christian church, its design was emulated as far away as Aachen. Adopted by Muslims after the invasion of the Ottomans, the Hagia Sophia was a template for many of the Empire’s greatest mosques.

What strikes me about the Hagia Sophia as I enter the building from the main entrance is the vastness of the interior in comparison with other churches of the age. The nave is also completely untrammelled by the columns and aisles of later Romanesque and then Gothic architecture in Northern Europe, which underlines the audacity of the dome plan.

The flow of space runs from nave to apse where now the minbar and mihrab of the conquering faith stand. The black and gold colour contrasts and the mysterious character of light from the dome windows inspires reverence in the visitor.

The upper galleries on three sides of the Hagia Sophia hold impressive examples of both christian mosaics and later, superficial islamic additions including decorative vegetal motifs.

I have wanted to visit this place for some years and now I’m here it’s difficult to take it all in. Even if some of the plasterwork in the pendentives is in parlous state, the rich detail of the decoration requires considerable contemplation.