Hagia Sophia Facts for Kids

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is a prestigious building in the European side of Istanbul, Turkey. It is often said to be one of the greatest and most beautiful buildings in history.

Hagia Sophia was built between 532 and 537, to serve as a Byzantine imperial church. After an earthquake, Trdat the Architect finished rebuilding it again in 994. It was used as an Eastern Orthodox church until 1453, except used as a Roman Catholic cathedral between 1204 and 1261. Ottoman sultan Mehmed the Conqueror converted it into a mosque in 1453 after the Fall of Constantinople. It became a museum in 1935 after the decision of the secularist Turkish government under Kemal Atatürk in 1934. In July 2020, the Islamist Turkish government under Tayyip Erdoğan ordered the Hagia Sophia to be turned back into a mosque following a supreme court annulment of a 1934 presidential decree that made it a museum.

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Interior, with Christian and Islamic elements.
View of the Dome Interior
Theodosian capital for a column, one of the few remains of the church of Theodosius II
Frieze with lambs
Originally a church, later a mosque, the 6th-century Hagia Sophia (532–537) by Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, until the completion of the Seville Cathedral (1507) in Spain.
The Church of Justinian I in 2019
Construction of church depicted in codex Manasses Chronicle (14th century)
Hagia Sophia in Istanbul
Basket capitals and verd antique and marble columns. The basket capitals of the building are carved with monograms of the names Justinian (Greek: ᾽Ιουστινιανός, romanized: Ioustinianós) and Thedora (Θεοδώρα, Theodṓra) and their imperial titles "βασιλεύς, basileús" and "αὐγούστα, augoústa".
Polychrome marble revetment on the wall of the gallery
Detail of the verd column
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Main (western) façade of Hagia Sophia, seen from courtyard of the madrasa of Mahmud I. Lithograph by Louis Haghe after Gaspard Fossati (1852).
The mihrab located in the apse where the altar used to stand, pointing towards Mecca. The two giant candlesticks flanking the mihrab were brought in from Ottoman Hungary by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
The imperial lodge (b 1850)
Hagia Sophia in 1937
Hagia Sophia in 1890
Hagia Sophia during the Allied occupation of Constantinople: the RHS Georgios Averof enters the Golden Horn in 1919 (Lycourgos Kogevinas [el], National Historical Museum, Athens)
Abdulmejid II (r. 1922 – 24), the last Ottoman caliph, passing Hagia Sophia on the way to his coronation. The Abolition of the Caliphate was one of Atatürk's Reforms.
Hagia Sophia in February 2020
a) Plan of the gallery (upper half) b) Plan of the ground floor (lower half)
The stone floor of Hagia Sophia dates from the 6th century.
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Minarets of Hagia Sophia
Verd antique columns and disc in the empress's loggia
Marble Door
Ceiling decoration showing original Christian cross still visible through the later aniconic decoration
Imperial gate mosaic
Southwestern entrance mosaic
Apse mosaic of the Virgin and Child
The Empress Zoe mosaic
The Comnenus mosaic
The Deësis mosaic
The Church of Saint Sava in Belgrade has been modelled after Hagia Sophia, using its primary square and the size of its dome
Interior of the Church of Saint Sava
Column and capital with a Greek cross
Porphyry column; column capital; impost block
Soffits and cornice
Columns and other fragments
Frieze with lambs
Theodosian capital
Theodosian capital for a pilaster, one of the few remains of the church of Theodosius II
Soffits
Nave before restoration, facing east
Nave and apse after restoration, facing east
Nave and entrance after restoration, facing west
Narthex, facing north
Exonarthex, facing north
North aisle from the entrance, facing east
North aisle, facing west
Nave and south aisle from the north aisle
Northern gallery and entrance to the matroneum from the north-west
Southern gallery from the south-west
Southern gallery from the Marble Door facing west
Southern gallery from the Marble Door facing east
Detail of the columns
Detail of the columns
Mosaic in the northern tympanum depicting Saint John Chrysostom
Six patriarchs mosaic in the southern tympanum as drawn by the Fossati brothers
Moasics as drawn by the Fossati brothers
Guillaume-Joseph Grelot [fr]'s engraving 1672, looking east and showing the apse mosaic
Guillaume-Joseph Grelot [fr]'s engraving 1672, looking west
Interior of the Hagia Sophia by John Singer Sargent, 1891
Photograph by Sébah & Joaillier, c. 1900–1910
Watercolour of the interior by Philippe Chaperon, 1893
Detail of relief on the Marble Door.
Imperial Gate from the nave
19th-century cenotaph of Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice, and commander of the 1204 Sack of Constantinople
Ambigram ΝΙΨΟΝΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑΜΗΜΟΝΑΝΟΨΙΝ ("Wash your sins, not only the face") inscribed upon a holy water font
Gate of the külliye, by John Frederick Lewis, 1838
Fountain of Ahmed III from the gate of the külliye, by John Frederick Lewis, 1838
Southern side of Hagia Sophia, looking east, by John Frederick Lewis, 1838
Hagia Sophia from the south-west, 1914
Hagia Sophia in the snow, December 2015
Maschinengewehr 08 mounted on a minaret during World War II

Hagia Sophia facts for kids

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