Christian mosaics at the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul, Turkey
Hagia Sophia is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935. The Church was dedicated to the Wisdom of God, the Logos, the second person of the Holy Trinity, its patronal feast taking place on 25 December, the commemoration of the Birth of the incarnation of the Logos in Christ. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture." It remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years thereafter, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by rioters. It was designed by the Greek scientists Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician. Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With a population of million, the city forms one of the largest urban agglomerations in Europe and is the second-largest city in the world by population within city limits. Istanbul's vast area of 5,343 square kilometers (2,063 sq mi) is coterminous with Istanbul Province, of which the city is the administrative capital. Istanbul is a transcontinental city, straddling the Bosphorus—one of the world's busiest waterways—in northwestern Turkey, between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea.
Size: 3872px × 2592px
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Photo credit: © Dimitry Bobroff / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: architecture, asia, black, bosphorus, byzantine, byzantium, cathedral, christianity, church, constantinople, dome, eastern, emperor, empire, europe, hagia, holy, islam, islamic, istanbul, justinian, latin, marmara, minaret, minarets, mosaics, moslem, museum, orthodox, ottoman, patriarchate, republic, roman, saint, sea, sophia, trinity, turkey, turks, wisdom
