Hagia Sophia: History, Architecture, and Byzantine Legacy
Hagia Sophia (532-537)
The rapid construction of Hagia Sophia can be attributed to substantial financial resources and an innovative building system. Byzantine masons employed alternating courses of brick and mortar beds. Porous tiles were used to reduce the dome’s weight, and marble was imported from all provinces to enhance the monument’s prestige.
Architects and Design
The architects of Hagia Sophia were Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, renowned geometers, mathematicians, and inventors of mechanical devices. The structure features four pillars supporting a ribbed dome on scallops, positioned at the center of a rectangle.
The Dome
The dome of Hagia Sophia is its most striking feature, shaped like a hemisphere. It comprises forty ribs converging at the center, with a diameter ranging from 30 to 31 meters and a height of 54 meters. Its originality lies in supporting the structure on four points rather than a circular drum, as seen in the Roman Pantheon. Thrusts are offset by half-domes and apses staggered on two sides, leaving the remaining sides open to accommodate stands.
Exterior and Materials
An extended front porch graces the church. Lightweight tiles from Rhodes were used to further reduce weight. To counteract the immense weight and thrust, massive buttresses of solid masonry were erected, clearly visible from the outside. While the exterior mass of the church possesses a certain harmony, it lacks significant grace. The plant is a rectangle measuring 77 x 71 meters.
Interior Splendor
The interior is luxuriously decorated and illuminated by sunlight streaming through the dome’s 40 windows, creating an optical illusion for worshippers, drawing their eyes upward. It is designed to represent the cosmos, with the dome symbolizing the sky and the prayer hall representing the earth.
Dome Details
The dome, standing 67 meters high and 33 meters in diameter, rests on four points without a drum and is surrounded by 40 small buttresses separated by windows, giving the impression of being suspended from heaven by a golden chain. These 40 windows resemble a cylindrical drum, lightening the weight and allowing light to enter. The imposing dome centralization, while unconventional for basilicas of the past, appears to rest on a solid foundation due to the scallops, the distribution of forces to the aisles, and the refined use of light.
Decoration
The dome is completely covered with gold mosaics, harmonizing with colored marble, porphyry columns, brackets, and original stained-glass windows. The superbly designed and carved capitals, while not belonging to classical orders, feature fine relief work with geometric and plant motifs.
Cruise and Arches
The square cruise extends east and west with semicircles covered by half-domes, leading to the apse, grouped in threes around the semicircles and topped with smaller half-domes. There are a total of 7 arches in the galleries, 5 in the aisles, 5 windows of 7 in the lunettes, forty windows in the drum of the dome, and 5 in each half-dome. This creates a contrast between bright light and dark windows, arches, and large domes surrounded by smaller ones, enhancing the interior space and giving the sensation of the main dome floating.
Transformation
Following the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. In 1935, it was transformed into a museum.