Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia, great church was the cathedral of east Roman and formed together with the hospice of Simpson and Hagia Eirene. The present church was rected by the emperor Justinian after the previous early fifth century cathedrale was burnt during the Nika riot in 532. This was the opputunity for Justinian to built a church that surpassed all ecclesiastical structures not only in the city but also in the whole Roman and post Roman world. The construction progressed rapidly and the new church, a colossal domed basilica with a total length about 135m, was inaugurated on 27 december 537. The daring construction of the first dome and the fact that the church was erected with haste led to the collapse of the dome after the earthquakes in 557. Fortunately, we known from Procopius's description how the four great arches and the original dome basically looked like in 537. Rising above the arches this cirlcle is the huge spherical dome which makes the building exceptionally beautiful. The second dome rising about 6m higher than the original, was constructed by Isiodore the younger, nephew of the original engineer, and the church was re-consecrated in 562.

The dome of Hagia Sophia is slightly smaller than the dome of the Pantheon in Rome; it has a diameter of 32m and a height from floor level of 55m. The weight of the dome passes through thr pendentives to four massive piers at the corners. Between them the dome seems to float upon four great arches of which western and eastern ones are extended by half domes carried on smaller semidomed exedras. The central domed core of the church is flanked by aisles on thr south and north sides and by two nartheces on the west side. Galleries above the aisles and the inner narthex were accessible originally by four spiral ramps adjoining the four corners of the church.

Despite several additions and modifications made during its almost 1500 years long history Justinians's Hagia Sophia retains in general much of its original appearance. Nevertheless, if we want to visualize the great church as it probably appeared in 537 it is above all necessary to remove four Turkish minarets and outer buttresses surrounding the church on all sides. The outer buttresses are to be dated in the middle and late east Roman periods: The flying buttresses on the west facade and those in the middle of both long sides as well as the south west buttress belong to a former group while more massive buttresses on the east side of the church to latter group.