Hagia Sophia
From the time it was built Haghia Sophia, the Church
of Divine Wisdom, has astonished and entranced all who beheld it, with its
great dome symbolising unattainable infinity. Haghia Sophia was used as a
church for 916 years and as a mosque for 481, so serving as a place of
worship for nearly one and a half millennia. When it was first built it
was known as the Megale Ekklesia or Great Church. After the Turkish
conquest it was converted into a mosque, but continued to be known by the
Turkish rendering of its Greek name, Ayasofya. In 1934, at the wish of
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, the Council of
Ministers turned the building into a museum. Haghia Sophia was constructed
by the Byzantine emperor Justinian between 532 and 537. It was the third
church of this name on the same site. The first was a basilica erected on
the site of a former Roman temple, and according to the historian Socrates
was dedicated on 15 February 360. It was destroyed by fire in the year 404
in an uprising against Emperor Arcadius. The second church was built by
Emperor Theodosius II and dedicated on 10 October 415, only to be burnt
down in the Nika Revolt on 13 January 532, during the fifth year of the
reign of Justinian I (527-565).After crushing the revolt Justinian
commanded that a new church be built on a far grander scale than the
previous two. The chronicler Procopius relates that two architects,
Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, were appointed for the task.
One hundred master craftsmen, one thousand journeymen, and ten thousand
labourers were employed.
Justinian wanted the church to be completed in the
shortest possible time, and sent orders out to all the provinces of his
realm commanding that columns and marbles from ancient cities be sent to
Istanbul. Shiploads arrived from Syria, Egypt and Greece as well as from
Asia Minor. Construction commenced on 23 February 532 and apart from the
decoration was completed in the astonishingly short time of 5 years 10
months and 24 days. The church was dedicated on 27 December 537 at a
magnificent opening ceremony. Justinian drove up to the church in his
victory chariot, and was welcomed in the atrium by Patriarch Menas. The
two men entered the church hand in hand. Justinian was so impressed by its
splendour, that he exclaimed, Thanks be to God for blessing me with the
good fortune of constructing such a place of worship.
At the inauguration one thousand bulls, six thousand
sheep, six hundred stags, one thousand pigs, ten thousand chickens and ten
thousand roosters were sacrificed and alms were distributed to the poor.
Haghia Sophia is the most outstanding example of a domed basilica. The
central space has an area of seven thousand square metres, and is flanked
by two aisles, each divided from the nave by four verd antique columns.
These eight columns were brought from Ephesus, while the eight porphyry
columns beneath the semidomes were brought from Egypt. Altogether the
building contains 107 columns, whose capitals are among the finest
examples of Byzantine stone carving. These capitals bear the monograms of
the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora. The dome rises to 56.6 metres
at its apex, and has a diameter of 32.37 metres. The original dome
collapsed in an earthquake just 22 years after the church was completed,
and was rebuilt in 562 by Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidorus of
Miletus. Isidorus the Younger raised the height of the dome by 2.65 metres
to lessen its outward thrust. During the Latin occupation of Istanbul by
the Fourth Crusaders between 1203 and 1261, the church was used for Roman
Catholic rites. Emperor Alexius IV was forced to hand over many of the
sacred objects belonging to the church in repayment for debts to the
Latins, and these are now in Venice. The mosaics of Haghia Sophia are
exquisite works of art. In the semidome of the apse is a large mosaic
depicting the Mother of God with the Infant Christ, which makes abundant
use of gold and silver. The dress of Mary is worked in dark blue glass
mosaic, and she sits on a magnificent bejeweled throne reminiscent of an
imperial throne. The faces of mother and infant are entrancingly
beautiful. Another mosaic not to be missed is that above the Imperial Gate
showing Leo VI (886-912) bowing before Christ and asking his sins to be
forgiven.
A mosaic on the side door of the inner narthex
depicts two emperors with Mary and the Infant Christ. One of the emperors
is Constantine I, shown presenting Mary and Christ with a model of
Constantinople, which was named after him, and the other is Justinian I,
who is presenting a model of the church that he founded. In the south
gallery is the Deisis mosaic and two others depicting Constantine IX
Monomachos and the Empress Zoe (11th century) and John Comnenus II with
his wife Eirene and son Alexius (12th century) respectively. In the north
gallery is the mosaic depicting Emperor Alexander (10th century). Four
minarets were added to the outside of the building at various times after
its conversion into a mosque. The huge buttresses against the exterior
walls were built in the 16th century by the Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan
to support the building, and have enabled it to survive to the present
day. Additions within the church are the mihrap or prayer niche inside the
apse, the bronze lamps to either side of the niche which were brought here
from Buda, and the pulpit and imperial and galleries of carved marble. The
library beyond the south aisle was built by Mahmud I in 1739.
All the additions were designed with the character of
the existing building in mind, the use of marble for the Ottoman additions
reflecting the extensive use of this material in the Byzantine building.
By Sengul G. AYDINGUN
Source: Sky life 10/2000 |
