Hagia Sophia

Yesterday I spent some time visiting one of the main spots I needed to see while in Turkey- Hagia Sophia. For those of you that don’t know, Hagia Sophia was the premier church of the Orthodox faith until the fall of Constantinople in 1454, when it was immediately turned into a mosque. For the Muslim invaders, this Church was the symbol of the empire that they sought to usurp, so it is no wonder that they wasted no time in claiming it as their prize. Many other churches suffered the same fate, as I will indicate later on. This take over was one of the greatest affronts perpetrated by one religion onto another in the history of religion. Ironically another significant affront that also occurred in Turkey was Ataturk’s abolishment of the Sulifate in his establishment of the Turkish Republic. Nevertheless, built in the 5th century, it is still one of the most awesome architectural and religious achievements of all time. The following picture is of the mosaic above the entrance, one of the few remaining. If some of the pictures are a little dark, I apologise as I was not allowed to use a flash while inside. Most of my pictures did not turn out on accout of this. I would also be interested to get some feedback on my use of sepia coloring in many of my photos.

This is the best picture I have of the main sanctuary. Unfortunately, during my visit there was a huge scaffold that dominated the center of the sanctuary, so I could only take pictures of the sides. The whole was magnificently grand (minus the scaffold that is). I could easily see how one would have felt that they were in heaven on earth while the liturgy was being performed. As you can see some of the images have been vandalized and the Muslim calligraphy dominates the upper levels. Another of the real tragedies is the state of disrepair. The paint on the walls is coming of in large flakes, and there are weeds growing on the walls outside. If there is no serious restoration effort this building could turn into a decrepit vestige of its former glory. Currently there is some pressure coming from the European Union to restore the church back to its intended use. Currently it is just a museum. I seriously hope that the Turkish government allows this change to occur, for such a turn around would be a glorious thing for all Christians, even non-Orthodox. I suspect that if the Church was able to take possession of it again, there would be immediate restoration efforts, and it would become a major site for Christian pilgrimage, which in turn could help the Christian reunification efforts.

At one time there would have been dozens of such mosaics, but due to disrepair and deliberate vandalism this is one of only one of four or five. Most of them are half fallen apart or worse. This one is in the best shape of the ones on the upper level. Why it was left in tact I don’t know, but I am glad that it was.

Here is one of the long hall ways. It gives you a sense of the color of the ceiling.

This is an example of how the Muslim inhabitants of this building tried to change it. The symbol on the left was a cross, but as you can see the cross beams were scratched out. There are many like this throughout the building.

Here is an example of one of the many “mosques” in Istanbul that looks almost identical in basic design to the Hagia Sophia. Today I learned that in the main part of what used to be Constantinople there were 43 churches that were changed into mosques. This would explain why so many of them look architecturally the same. Some that were not converted, like St. Irene, was turned into an arsenal. It is hard to tell what mosques were once churches, but I suspect that any that look over 500 years old, which is a good many, are in fact converted churches.