place
Hagia Sophia
Also known as Holy Wisdom, Ayasofya
high
41.0083, 28.9800 · Wikidata Q12506 P625 (accessed 2026-11-12) · On the map
- founded or start. 537-12-27high · Wikidata P571
- ended. 404high · Wikidata P576
Justinian's great church in Constantinople (537), later a mosque, museum and mosque again.
Wikipedia extract
Hagia Sophia, officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, is a mosque and a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. It was formerly a church (360–1453) and a museum (1935–2020). The last of three church buildings to be successively erected on the site by the Eastern Roman Empire, it was completed in AD 537, becoming the world's largest interior space and among the first to employ a fully pendentive dome. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture". From its dedication in 360 until 1453, Hagia Sophia served as the cathedral of Constantinople in the Byzantine liturgical tradition, except for the period 1204–1261 when the Latin Crusaders installed their own hierarchy. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it served as a mosque, having its minarets added soon after. The site became a museum in 1935, and was redesignated as a mosque in 2020.
CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikipedia contributors. Source page
Sources
- Hagia Sophia · Wikipedia contributorsAccessed 2026-11-12 · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q12506 · Wikidata contributorsAccessed 2026-11-12 · CC0 1.0
- Pleiades place 307220778 · Pleiades contributorsAccessed 2026-11-12 · CC BY 3.0
Authority files
Related
- Justinian I · person
- Dedication of Hagia Sophia (537) · event
architecture · constantinople