Page 16 - All About History - Issue 59-17

the Byzantine empiRe

Squaring the circle A miracle of
01 What gives Hagia Sophia its beauty is the 03 construction
revolutionary way in which the architects created an immense A marvel of engineering,
open space. It is a dome built upon two semi-domes. In order Hagia Sophia was originally
to do this, it was necessary to ‘square the circle’, which means completed only five years
to build a circular dome upon the square base. Hagia Sophia after construction began.
was one of the first structures to make use of this technique. But 20 years later the dome
Byzantine paintings of six-winged angels called seraphs collapsed and was repaired
(Greek: hexapterygon) still line the pendentives. by the nephew of one of
the original architects with
HAGIA SOPHIA The exterior adding support.
the ribs we see today

02 adornments
The four minarets were
added separately over the
Turkey, 537 – Present 02 centuries following the
Ottoman Conquest in 1453.
At 60 metres, the minarets
The site of Hagia Sophia has been a holy place are taller than the cupola —
for centuries. Constantine I built a church on the the highest part of the dome
foundations of a pagan temple in 325 CE and this — which hovers effortlessly
was restored and then extended several times. 55.6 metres above the
However, after the church was destroyed by fire beautiful marble inlaid floor.
during the Nika Riots in 532, Emperor Justinian I
had a grand vision. Wanting to restore the empire
to its former glory, he decided to build the greatest
church the world had ever seen.
Justinian hired a pair of famed mathematicians,
Anthemios and Isidore, to design it. In 537, just
under six years later, the Hagia Sophia (meaning
‘Holy Wisdom’) was completed. Its enormous
dome relied on a revolutionary design that made it
the largest in the world for almost a millennium.
Despite its incredible design, the centuries were
hard on the awe-inspiring church and subsequent
Byzantine emperors used repairs as opportunities
to add their name to it. Some were beautiful
additions — for example, Justinian’s successor
Justin II covered the walls with intricate mosaics.
However, not every ruler was a patron of the
arts. In 726, Emperor Leo III, following a civil
war, forbade religious icons and this iconoclasm
continued until 842 and saw the destruction of
religious icons in churches across the land.
As the Byzantine Empire slowly collapsed,
Islamic ones like the Ottomans replaced it. This
threat prompted Western Christian nations to
crusade and reclaim the ‘Holy Land’. The Crusades
never achieved long-term success, however,
and even catalysed the fall of Constantinople
in 1453 when Ottoman sultan Mehmed the
Conqueror took the city. Fortunately, he was
struck by the beauty of Hagia Sophia and he made
Constantinople his capital. Hagia Sophia (now Islamic calligraphy
called Aya Sofya) was converted into a mosque
and its Christian art was covered or replaced with 10 The Ottomans added their art and
Islamic calligraphy. Hagia Sophia’s beauty would calligraphy over the centuries. These ‘medallions’
inspire the next generation of Ottoman art. were added during a renovation in 1847. They
When the Ottoman Empire fell after World are Islamic calligraphy with the names of Allah,
War I, the secular nation of Turkey was created Muhammad and the first four Caliphs. Below is a
and Hagia Sophia became a museum, which you minbar, or the elevated place where a müezzin leads
can still visit today in modern-day Istanbul. and recites the call to prayer within the mosque.

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