Wow... what a city. Today we began with Haggia Sophia or Aya Sofia, depending on how you prefer to spell it. There is a certain political or cultural overtone to it, given that the first primarily honors the Byzantine while the latter touches more on the Ottoman. No matter now... it is a magnificent reminder of the glory that was Constantinople and Istanbul.
Some data first... it is the fourth largest ancient building in the world... the dimensions are staggering. When it was built, the first two versions, made of wood, were burned (4th century, 5th century). The first burning was in response to the exiling of Christians to Anatolia, the second followed the horrendous Nika revolt in 532 AD where 30,000 died in the Roman Hippodrome. Issues were complex, but Justinian made an unpopular call in deciding a chariot race in the Hippodrome, and teh ensuing riots were massive and deadly. It burned again. By the way, those were the last serious horseraces in the Hippodrome -- I'll tell you about that in a bit.
Justinian decided the church must be rebuilt. The Empress Theodora goaded him to do it on the grandest scale possible to dazzle the restless people and intimidate the rest of the world. He did it smart. He hired the best Jewish mathematicians, architects and designers in the world. The simple orders were that the structure must surpass the Temple of Solomon. The designed and built the massive structure in 2 years, spent a third year ornamenting it. That would be fast today. Of course, there were 1000 slaves working round the clock for that time, which may have sped up the process.
The church reopened in 535 AD and that is the present structure. I won't use too many statistics, but the central dome is over 65 meters high; it is more than 35 meters in diameter.... considering it is made of marble, that means inconceivable weight that is supported by the walls... and yet it is open and airy. Perfect engineering. The picture above is the best I could do of the exterior, given that it is so huge.
Over the years, there was conflict between the Catholic Church and what became the Orthodox Church, and everyone worked on calling everyone else pagans. There was conflict over ornamentation and iconography, but there is a bit of everything. When the Ottomans took over in 1453, they added a few odd minarets and other elements of mosques. They used fresh white plaster to paint over the mosaics and paintings of saints, which was the salvation of those artworks which have since been uncovered. After Turkey arose from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, Kemal Ataturk was inspired to have the building and its treasures preserved as a museum and much attention was paid to its preservation and restoration. It is truly breathtaking. I will add a few pictures of the interior... one fun part was the small cat in the midst of the crowd, lying just below the Muslim "pulpit", accepting pats from the passersby and quite undismayed by the crowds. There were huge crowds of great diversity...omnipresent Japanese tours, western Europeans, Americans, many more. (I sat a bit in the garden after we toured and talked to people from India and Norway in the space of about 10 minutes.
Above you'll see various views.. the early marble pillars, various interior views. I am including one of the marble panels in the walls. .... you'll note it looks like a mirror image...teh craftsmen devised a golden saw that could thinly "slice" the marble and then put the two panels together to "reflect" each other. Pretty cool. I will include the kedi (cat) as well, and other stuff. More after I get home.. it takes forever to download the pictures!
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