The third part of our exploration of Istanbul! So after our exploration of the Magnificent Blue Mosque, we headed to the main large square with a fountain near it. And here we saw it. The majestic Hagia Sophia, standing no less proudly than the previous one. This Mosque is not really a mosque, and has a huge history. It was built in 532, it was originally built for the purpose of the Christian Church. After all, it was built during the reign of Justinian I, a man who left a great contribution to history behind him, and ruled an incredibly strong Christian state - Byzantium. One of the strongest in fact. As I already mentioned in my first article about Istanbul, or more precisely, about the Galata Tower, on the site of Istanbul, before Byzantium was captured by Mehmed II in 1453, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire at that time, before that, a completely different world reigned here, in which Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, and the center of Christianity was located on that site.
So, after leaving the Blue Mosque, which I wrote about in my previous post, we headed to the large square opposite. It had an unbeatable view of a beautiful fountain full of seagulls.
Seagulls were flying everywhere, adding beauty to the landscape and vibe to the city. They were flying over the entire square, later diving into the fountain with cool water. During this event, I noticed a funny and strange detail. Some seagulls, sitting on the water, would occasionally jump to a small height, and then fall into the fountain upside down again. And they did this constantly, and it looked very interesting. I would have gladly joined if I were a seagull 😁
I really wanted a photo of a seagull in flight, but these crafty creatures flew so fast that I only got one funny shot of half a seagull with a lot of movement around it.
The water in the fountain looked alluring, as if some emerald had melted and formed this water, and it looked wonderful in the setting of palm trees, various trees, infrastructure and... The huge Hagia Sofia that majestically flaunted itself in the background. The architect did a great job with this creation as well. The building was made with the highest quality, with a special coating that has great value. Thus, Justinian built the largest cathedral ever built at that time, remaining the largest for a whole thousand years (of course, not everyone can surpass such a work of art), until the cathedral was built in Seville in Spain.
After the construction of the Cathedral, Justinian named the Cathedral as we all know it — Hagia Sophia. But it does not mean Saint Sophia, as you might think, as if in honor of some holy woman (including me, I thought so). The name Sophia comes from the Greek word "Σοφία", which means "wisdom". Yes, now in Ukraine, and probably in Europe, they call children such a beautiful church name, putting wisdom into this name. It is believed that by giving a name, you give the child the character traits of this name — that is, a child with this name will be wise. But in this case, this word was used in its original meaning, and the name Sophia did not yet exist, or was not so widely used. The first word also comes from Greek (after all, Byzantium mostly used Greek, in addition to Latin). "Ἁγία" has no hidden meaning and means holy. And so together Ἁγία Σοφία — God's Wisdom. A very beautiful and concise name. An irrelevant fact to the topic, but studying the origin of this name and its meaning, I also learned that since philo is love, sophia is wisdom, then philosophy is the love of wisdom. As for me, this is a fascinating fact, I am delighted with the logic of the Greek language, it seems to me that many words came from this language, because it is one of the oldest languages in the world (about 3600 years).
Hagia Sophia adorned the landscape with its appearance. Its walls were slightly orange in color, and it seemed as if the metal dome was slightly bluish in color. Although the combo of these two colors is quite controversial, they harmonized beautifully with each other. Some of the walls that were under the roof have a red color, which shows that the building was previously a different color. This gives away its age a little. The domes of Hagia Sophia are very interesting, there were several whole domes with a golden tip on each of them, the main large dome, and many half domes. By the way, as I read, it was difficult to build such a large dome of the Cathedral, which has a surface area of 32 m, and there were many problems in the construction. So to solve the problem, the method of Heron of Alexandria, a Hellenistic mathematician, who was the most outstanding experimenter of antiquity and a representative of the Hellenistic scientific tradition, was probably used. He created mathematical theorems, formulas and invented many things. Thus, the temple had an unsurpassed atmosphere, which even chroniclers wrote about. When you enter the temple and look up at the dome, it seems to you as if it is levitating in the air. The illusion that gives this feeling is created through 40 windows that are located directly under the dome, through which light breaks through. Unfortunately, the dome later collapsed several times due to earthquakes, but it was beautifully repaired each time.
Hagia Sophia has an impressive history. But let's start with the basics. How was Byzantium founded? First there was the great Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was truly Great. And it became so large that it was divided into two parts. Emperor Diolectian introduced the tetrarchy system, where there are several rulers. In the western part, Diolectian ruled from then on, in the eastern part - Constantine the Great. And so, in the Eastern Roman Empire, there was the city of Byzantium (Byzantion) founded by the Greeks from Megara in the 7th century. AD which Constantine in 330 chose as the capital of the Roman Empire, calling it Constantinople (which comes from his name - Constantine - Constantinople). In fact, people at that time called Byzantium the Roman Empire, but only later historians, taking the original name of the city, came up with this term to distinguish Ancient Rome from the new Eastern Roman Empire.
And so, initially, in 324 — when there was no mention of the modern Hagia Sophia, or even the city of Constantinople did not yet exist on the same site as today, Constantine the Great built a cathedral, called the Great Church (because it was the biggest one in the country most likely). But he did not have time to finish it, due to his death in 337, and instead his son Constantius II completed and consecrated it in 360. But unfortunately, the cathedral suffered a tragic fate. In 404, the Patriarch of Constantinople John Chrysostom, who was a famous preacher, quarreled with the Empress Eudokia. John is expelled from the city and the people begin to rebel. In the unrest, a fire breaks out, where the church burns down.
In 415, Theodosius II built a new and even larger version of the church on the same site. But this church also failed. In 532, during the Nika uprising, a mob set fire to the city and the temple burned down again. This had already happened during the reign of Justinian, and he decided to make history by building the largest and most concise cathedral. After Justinian's wife, Theodora, convinced him to stay and not flee as he had planned, they brutally suppressed the uprising. Most of the city was destroyed, and a few years later, in 537, Justinian built today's Hagia Sophia, which has been standing for a millennium and a half!
Later, on May 29, 1453, the Ottomans captured Byzantium, and in the same year they converted Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Later, in 1935, when the first presidents came to power after the sultans, the mosque was converted into a museum. And only recently, in 2020, the museum's status as a mosque was restored - it now serves again as in the old days, but it is still open for visits (except for namaz time, probably). By the way, at first I didn't understand how it was turned into a mosque, but after googling everything fell into place. The temple was turned into a mosque by adding two minarets on the sides. It really made a big difference, before it was completely like a temple, but after adding the minarets, I had no idea that it could be a temple, although I understood that something was wrong because the name sounds too Christian.
How the cathedral looked before it's transition to mosque 🕌⬆️
I took the image from here
After watching the Hagia Sofia, it was already night and the Blue mosque glowed magically. Walking there during the evening was really a fantastic moment. The night Istanbul is like some another world. But thisdeserves another post!
It's been so long since I've been to Istanbul, so recently we got a chance to visit again, but still i lost my chance and didn't visit the inside of any of the mosques, but i hope I'll be able to visit again! Anyways, I hope you liked reading the history of this mesmerising cathedral (right now mosque) and I hope y'all are going to read the sequel of this story about the insides of the buildings!
Bye bye everyone!
