The document summarizes the history of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. It describes how the original church was built in 360 AD and rebuilt in the early 5th century after being damaged. After being destroyed in 532 during a revolt, Emperor Justinian commissioned architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus to build a new church that was completed in 537, featuring a massive dome supported by 40 ribs. The church was later converted to a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
1. Architects: Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus the Elder Construction: 532-537 Commissioned by the Emperor Justinian Constantinople (Istanbul): Hagia (St.) Sophia
3. Constantinople (Istanbul): Hagia (St.) Sophia --An early, wood-roofed basilica, named for Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) was built on the site in 360 AD. It was altered or replaced in the early fifth century. --This church was destroyed in 532 during the Nike Revolt.
4. Constantinople (Istanbul): Hagia (St.) Sophia Aftermath of the Nike Revolt: --Justinian made building a new Hagia Sophia his top priority. --He wanted a church which would reflect the power, grandeur, and faith of the imperial office. --Built in only five years (532-37), utilizing a work force of 10,000 (100 master masons, each with a 100 man crew).
5. Constantinople (Istanbul): Hagia (St.) Sophia When completed in 537: --182 feet high, with a dome 102 feet in diameter, supported by 40 ribs. --40 doorways, and external staircase towers providing access to the upper galleries. --The world’s tallest enclosed space. The dome appeared to be “ suspended from Heaven by a golden chain.” — Procopius
6. Constantinople (Istanbul): Hagia (St.) Sophia First dome: collapsed after an earthquake in 558. A new, and smaller, dome then built by Isidore of Miletus the Younger.
7. Original stonework on capitals and spandrels Constantinople (Istanbul): Hagia (St.) Sophia
8. Constantinople (Istanbul): Hagia (Aya) Sophia Changes and modifications—conversion to a mosque Conversion to a mosque: --Constantinople conquered by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II in 1453. Mehmet II (Mehmet the Conqueror)
9. ICONS: From Greek (eikon = image). Often small paintings depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary, and/or saints. Painted on hard, wood panels; the medium is usually tempera (pigment/colors mixed with egg yolk as a binding agent), although early panels often were painted with encaustic (pigments in melted beeswax). A gold leaf background provides a heavenly aura, signifying the sacred nature of the characters. Many icons were painted in monasteries.
10. ICONS: Not only are they formulaic in form, they tend to adhere to specific categories. THEOTOKOS: “God Bearer”/ Mother of God (Virgin and Child)
12. ICONS: Most were intended as a personal devotion, and considered an important medium of worship. Begin as early as the 4 th Century AD, and become increasingly popular during the 6 th Century. Many worshippers believed the icons had miraculous powers.
15. ICONOCLASM Second Commandment: “ Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above”
16. ICONOCLASM Some theologians held that because in Christ two natures, human and divine, are united, icons involving Christ should be rejected— they were simply material images which separated his divine from his human nature, and were thus tantamount to a form of heresy.
17. ICONOCLASM EMPEROR LEO III: reigned 717-741 AD. In 726 he prohibited the use of icons (religious images) and began a systematic destruction of holy images, in part because he had become convinced that the increasing threat of Islam had been sent by God as a punishment for the Christians’ idolatrous use of icons.
18. ICONODULES: Defenders of icons ICONOPHILES: Lovers of icons Defense of icons: --Tradition and antiquity of their use --The nature of Christ’s incarnation caused the Old Testament commandment to be revoked
19. ICONOCLASM Iconoclastic programs suspended by the Empress Irene in 780 AD, and in 787 the Seventh Ecumenical Synod in Nicaea affirmed the veneration of icons as positive. Iconoclastic programs would be revived, however, in the early ninth century, and only finally cease in 843.
