44 Fun Facts About Hagia Sophia

Justinian's church was inaugurated with great pomp on 27 December of which year?

The church was inaugurated on 27 December 537, five years and ten months after work began in February 532 on the site of the burned second church.

Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, designers of Justinian's church, were primarily what?

Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus were geometers by training: Anthemius a mathematician who wrote on burning mirrors and conic sections, Isidore a professor of geometry who compiled Archimedes.

What does the name 'Hagia Sophia' mean?

Hagia Sophia is Greek for Holy Wisdom, a title of Christ rather than a saint's name; the neighbouring older church Hagia Irene means Holy Peace.

The second church on the site was burned to the ground in January 532 during which uprising?

The Nika riots of January 532, which began in the Hippodrome next door, burned the second church; Justinian laid out the present building weeks later.

On seeing the finished church, Justinian is said to have declared he had surpassed which biblical king?

Justinian is said to have exclaimed 'Solomon, I have outdone thee' at the dedication, setting his church against Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

Roughly how many people were employed to build Justinian's church?

More than 10,000 workers were employed on Justinian's church, with marble and columns brought from across the empire; the building rose in under six years.

Who rebuilt Hagia Sophia's dome, higher and ribbed, after its collapse in the 558 earthquake?

Isidorus the Younger, nephew of Isidore of Miletus, rebuilt the dome after the 558 collapse, raising it about 6.25 m on a steeper ribbed profile; it was rededicated in 562.

What are the four curved triangular supports carrying Hagia Sophia's main dome called?

Pendentives, the four spherical triangles between the arches, let Hagia Sophia's round dome sit on a square bay; Ottoman mosques copied the device a millennium later.

Roughly how far above the floor is the top of the central dome?

The crown of the dome is about 56 m (55.6 m) above the floor; it rests on an arcade of 40 windows that makes it appear to float.

Justinian had eight Corinthian columns shipped from which ancient city, now in Lebanon?

Eight Corinthian columns were taken from Baalbek in Lebanon and shipped to Constantinople for the church, alongside marble quarried specially across the empire.

The floor is mostly Proconnesian marble, quarried on an island in which sea?

Proconnesian marble comes from Proconnesus, today's Marmara Island in the Sea of Marmara, whose very name derives from the Greek word for marble.

Which emperor's 726 edicts against images led to all religious pictures being removed from Hagia Sophia?

Leo the Isaurian (Leo III) issued edicts against the veneration of images in 726, and Hagia Sophia's religious pictures were stripped out; figural mosaics returned only after iconoclasm ended in 843.

Which Rus' prince sent the envoys whose awe at Hagia Sophia helped him choose Orthodoxy?

Vladimir the Great sent envoys to examine his neighbours' faiths around 987; their awe at the liturgy in Hagia Sophia helped him choose Orthodox Christianity in 988.

Which Rus' ruler was probably baptised in Hagia Sophia's baptistery in the 950s, taking the name Helena?

Olga of Kiev, regent for her young son Sviatoslav, travelled to Constantinople and was baptised there about 957, taking the Christian name Helena.

Which Armenian architect did Basil II hire to repair Hagia Sophia's dome after the 989 earthquake?

Basil II brought in Trdat, the Armenian architect of Ani Cathedral, to rebuild the western arch and part of the dome after the 989 quake; the church reopened on 13 May 994.

The delivery of a papal excommunication in Hagia Sophia in 1054 is considered the start of what?

The East–West Schism is dated from July 1054, when Cardinal Humbert, envoy of Pope Leo IX, laid a bull excommunicating Patriarch Michael Cerularius on Hagia Sophia's altar.

Runic graffiti in the northern gallery is believed to have been carved by members of which unit?

Members of the Varangian Guard, the emperor's Norse bodyguard, are thought to have scratched the runes; one in the south gallery reads roughly 'Halvdan was here'.

During which crusade was Hagia Sophia sacked and turned into a Latin Catholic cathedral in 1204?

The Fourth Crusade took Constantinople in April 1204; Niketas Choniates records mules led into Hagia Sophia to haul off loot, one disembowelled on the marble floor.

Which Venetian doge, who led the 1204 sack of Constantinople, is buried inside Hagia Sophia?

Enrico Dandolo, the blind nonagenarian doge who steered the crusaders into Constantinople, died there in 1205; the slab bearing his name in the upper gallery is a later marker, not his tomb.

The Deësis mosaic in the upper gallery was commissioned to mark what?

The Deësis, probably from 1261, marked the end of 57 years of Latin Catholic use after Michael VIII retook the city; it shows Christ between the Virgin and John the Baptist.

The 11th-century south gallery mosaic shows Christ flanked by Constantine IX and which empress?

The emperor's face and name were reworked, since Zoe outlived two earlier husbands who had occupied the same spot.

Empress Irene's blond plaits in the 1122 Comnenus mosaic reveal her descent from which country?

Irene was born Piroska, daughter of King Ladislaus I of Hungary; she married John II Comnenus, and their eldest son Alexius appears on an adjacent pilaster.

Hagia Sophia's 'sweating column' has been moist, legend says, since which saint appeared beside it in 1200?

Legend says Gregory Thaumaturgus, the Miracle Worker, appeared by the column in 1200; visitors since have pressed a thumb into its hole and turned it, hoping the damp cures ailments.

On what date in 1453 did Constantinople fall to the Ottomans?

Constantinople fell on 29 May 1453 after a 53-day siege; the church was looted during the three days of pillage and then converted into a mosque.

Hagia Sophia was Istanbul's principal mosque until 1616, when which new mosque took over the role?

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Blue Mosque, was completed in 1616 directly across the square and took over as the city's principal mosque; its six minarets and cascading domes answer Hagia Sophia.

Which sultan brought two colossal candlesticks from his conquest of Hungary and placed them beside the mihrab?

Suleiman the Magnificent, sultan from 1520 to 1566, brought the two giant candlesticks home as war booty and set them either side of the mihrab.

Which Ottoman architect strengthened Hagia Sophia with buttresses and added two minarets under Selim II?

Mimar Sinan, Selim II's chief architect, shored up Hagia Sophia with heavy buttresses and added two minarets in the 1570s; he also designed Selim's türbe beside the church.

Murad III imported two large alabaster Hellenistic urns for the nave from which ancient city?

Murad III, sultan from 1574 to 1595, had the two alabaster urns, Hellenistic work from Pergamon, brought to Hagia Sophia and set either side of the nave.

The major 1847-49 restoration was carried out by which pair of Swiss-Italian architect brothers?

The Fossatis, Swiss-Italian brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati, restored Hagia Sophia for Abdulmejid I in 1847-49, bracing the dome with an iron chain and levelling the minarets' heights.

Besides Allah, Muhammad and his two grandsons, whose names are on the Hagia Sophia's eight giant medallions?

The other medallions carry the names of the first four caliphs, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali; calligrapher Kazasker Mustafa Izzet Efendi made the set in the 1840s.

Who converted Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1935?

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's government secularised the building by decree in 1934 and opened it as a museum on 1 February 1935, lifting the carpets to expose the marble floor.

What did a Greek military priest perform in Hagia Sophia in 1919, for the only time since 1453?

Eleftherios Noufrakis, a Greek army chaplain, celebrated a Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia in January 1919 during the Allied occupation of the city, the only Orthodox liturgy there since 1453.

Roughly how many visitors did the Hagia Sophia museum attract in 2014?

Hagia Sophia drew almost 3.3 million visitors in 2014, making it Turkey's second most visited museum that year.

In what year did Turkey's Council of State reclassify Hagia Sophia as a mosque?

On 10 July 2020 the Council of State annulled the 1934 museum decree, and the first Friday prayers followed on 24 July 2020, the anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, with the apse mosaics draped.

The council ruled that Hagia Sophia belonged to a foundation named after which sultan?

The court held that Hagia Sophia belonged to the Fatih Sultan Mehmed Han Foundation, the waqf of Mehmed II, who had endowed it as a mosque in perpetuity, so the 1934 decree was void.

Which Turkish Nobel laureate denounced the 2020 conversion of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?

Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's 2006 Nobel laureate in literature, told the BBC the conversion took away Turks' pride in being a secular Muslim nation; UNESCO and the World Council of Churches also objected.

The first church on the site was consecrated in 360 under which emperor?

The first church, known simply as the Great Church (Megale Ekklesia), was dedicated on 15 February 360 under Constantius II, son of Constantine the Great; it burned in riots in 404.

The riots that burned the first church in 404 followed the exile of which Patriarch of Constantinople?

John Chrysostom, exiled in 404 after clashing with Empress Aelia Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius, had supporters who rioted and burned the Great Church in June 404.

Which court historian described the church's construction in his book 'On Buildings' (De aedificiis)?

Procopius of Caesarea, Justinian's court historian, devotes the opening of his On Buildings (De aedificiis, c. 560) to the new church, praising its seemingly floating dome.

From January 2024, Hagia Sophia began charging an entrance fee to which visitors?

From 15 January 2024 foreign nationals were charged a 25-euro fee to tour the upper galleries, while Turkish citizens and worshippers entered the ground floor free.

Which poet composed an ekphrasis for the church's re-dedication on 24 December 562?

Paul the Silentiary, a court official and poet, recited his verse ekphrasis Descriptio Sanctae Sophiae for the re-dedication on 24 December 562, after the dome had been rebuilt following the 558 collapse.

Which sultan added a medrese, soup kitchen, library and fountain in 1739-40, making it a külliye?

Mahmud I's restoration of 1739-40 added a medrese, an imaret soup kitchen, a library and a şadırvan fountain, turning Hagia Sophia into a külliye; Ahmed III had re-plastered the interior in 1717.

Which Ottoman sultan was the first to be buried in Hagia Sophia's converted baptistery?

Mustafa I, whose two short reigns came in 1617-18 and 1622-23, was buried in 1639 in the old baptistery, converted into a türbe for him; Sultan Ibrahim joined him there in 1648.

How many workers carried out the Fossati brothers' 1847-49 restoration?

Eight hundred workers carried out the 1847-49 restoration ordered by Sultan Abdulmejid I, which also added a new sultan's loge, the Hünkar Mahfili.