Hagia Sophia Research Paper

The Hagia Sophia, Istanbul was established as a museum on February 1, 1935. It was located in Sultanahmet Mh., Ayasofya Meydanı, Fatih/İstanbul, Turkey. The Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture. Hagia Sophia has been around for decades and theres much history of what it has been and, the architecture of this building, and the décor and mosaics. In the beginning Hagia Sophie was constructed 537 until 1453, and it first started out as an Orthodox Cathedral. From 1453 to 1935 it was a Mosque. After being the orthodox cathedral it became a Roman Catholic Cathedral under the Latin empire, for the longest time this was the largest Cathedral around. From February 1, 1935 to present time the Hagia Sophia

Which some of the marble blocks survived so it became part of the front entrance. Then there was the Third Church, which is also the current structure. On 23 February 532 emperor Justinian I built the third and final structure. On 14 December 557 earthquakes caused cracks to the main dome that when the next earthquake hit on 7 May 558 the dome collapsed completely, which destroyed a lot. Isidorus the Youger, who is nephew to Isidore of Miletus, did the next restoration to fix what the earthquake had damaged. The next emperor Leo the Isaurian ordered to destroy any icons that showed he Byzantine Iconoclasm. Then the next to emperors and empresses were both influenced in the Islamic art. There was another fire in 869 and more earthquakes in 869, which made half of the dome collapse. It was built up once more and only took six years to fix. It was reopened 13 May 994 and had more decorations and architecture added to it. Then the Latin Christians came and destroyed it. The building was closed until 1354 due to earthquakes collapsing it again. Then it was a Mosque from

There are many domes throughout the Hagia Sophia but the one that the nave is covered by is the central dome and has an arcade of 40 arched windows and with a diameter varying between 31.24 and 30.86 m. Then there is an upper gallery that is horseshoe shaped and was traditionally reserved for the empress and her court. The cupola collapsed after the quake and was rebuilt by Isidore the younger. The new cupola that he built was more like umbrella shaped with ribs from top to