Ayasofya

Hagia Sophia
about
contents
. History
Page(4-5)
. Venues
Page(6-7)
. Structure
Page(8-9)
. Architecture
Page(10-11)
. Mozaics
Page(12-13)
History
Hagia Sophia officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque,is a
mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey.
The cathedral was a Greek Orthodox church from 360 AD
until the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire
in 1453. It served as a mosque until 1935, when it became a
museum. In 2020, the site once again became a mosque.
Originally built by the eastern Roman emperor Justinian I as the

Christian cathedral of Constantinople for the state church of
the Roman Empire between 532 and 537, and designed by the
Greek geometers Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles,
it was formally called the Church of the Holy Wisdom and was
then the world's largest interior space and among the first to
employ a fully pendentive dome. It is considered the epitome
of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the his-
tory of architecture". The present Justinianic building was the
third church of the same name to occupy the site, as the pri-
or one had been destroyed in the Nika riots. As the episcopal
see of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, it remained
the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until
Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. Beginning with sub-
sequent Byzantine architecture, Hagia Sophia became the par-
adigmatic Orthodox church form, and its architectural style was
emulated by Ottoman mosques a thousand years later.
4
5
6
Venues
The Hagia Sophia was originally built as a basilica for the
Greek Orthodox Christian Church. However, its function has
changed several times in the centuries since.Byzantine Emperor
Constantius commissioned construction of the first Hagia Sophia
in 360 A.D. At the time of the first church's construction, Istanbul
was known as Constantinople, taking its name from Constantius'
father, Constantine I, the first ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
A little more than one century later, this would again prove to be
a fatal flaw for this important basilica of the Greek Orthodox faith,
as the structure was burned for a second time during the so-
called "Nika revolts" against Emperor Justinian I, who ruled from
527 to 565.
7
Structure
Pendentive is a section of concave triangular support. Four of
the pendentives form a structure that provides the transition
from a square space up to the circular area to be crowned by
a dome. Although it appears to be hanging from the dome,
they restrain the force of the dome and allow the weight of the
dome to flow downward. This structure allows the architects
of Byzantine to construct the Hagia Sophia. It made the
spectacular lighting of Hagia Sophia possible.
The construction was made mostly out of brick and mortar. The
dome was built over a square base, and pendentives, spherical
triangles acting as a structural transition between the square
shape of the base and the round shape of the dome, were an
innovative constructive element used to support the weight of
the dome.
8
9
10
Architecture
The Hagia Sophia combines a longitudinal basilica and a
centralized building in a wholly original manner, with a huge
32-metre (105-foot) main dome supported on pendentives
and two semidomes, one on either side of the longitudinal axis.
Though Justinian’s domed basilicas are the models from which
Byzantine architecture developed, the Hagia Sophia remained
unique, and no attempt was thereafter made by Byzantine
builders to emulate it.
In plan the building is almost square, but, looked at from within,

it appears to be rectangular, for the great semidomes at east
and west prolong the effect of the roof. There are three aisles
separated by columns with galleries above and great marble
piers rising up at either end to support the dome. The columns
are of finest marble, selected for their colour and variety, while
the lower parts of the walls are covered with marble slabs. The
curtain walls (non-load-bearing exterior walls) above the galleries
and the base of the dome are pierced by windows, which in the
glare of daylight obscure the supports and give the impression
that the canopy floats on air.
11
Mozaics
Art historians consider the building’s beautiful mosaics to be
the main source of knowledge about the state of mosaic art in
the time shortly after the end of the Iconoclastic Controversy
in the 8th and 9th centuries. Parts of the redecoration that
the church underwent in the last half of the 9th century have
been uncovered in recent times. In their colour and technique
these show a continuation of the early Byzantine tradition: the
preference for rather strong, clear tints and the effects created
by such techniques as the tilting of tesserae and the turning of
gold cubes. The preoccupation with light seems stronger than
ever: in badly lit places in the vestibule and gallery, the gold
ground displays a high percentage of silver cubes among the
gold ones to add to the sparkle. Stylistically, new ground had
been broken. Particularly in faces, the tesserae are set in wavy
lines which break up the modeling in bandlike configurations.
Linearism (the expression of form in terms of line rather than
colour and tone) had taken a great step forward.
In the arrangement and distribution of pictures, new features

are visible. In the apse of the Hagia Sophia, the Virgin with
Child sits surrounded by a vast expanse of gold. The tendency
to depict iconlike, motionless, mosaic figures isolated on a gold
background has pre-Iconoclastic precedents, but from the 9th
century onward it became a leading decorative principle.
12
13

Ayasofya

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ayasofya

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ayasofya

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hagia Sophia

Originally built by the eastern Roman emperor Justinian I as the

In plan the building is almost square, but, looked at from within,

In the arrangement and distribution of pictures, new features

You might also like