Hagia Sophia

The Aya Sofia or Hagia Sophia is one of the archaeological treasures of Istanbul, built in the 6th century by Byzantine Emperor Justinian in his capital, Constantinople.  The building was used as a church from 537 - 1453, converted to a mosque and used in that capacity until 1931, before being established as a museum.

Hagia Sophia is located in Sultan Ahmet section of Istanbul and it a must see on all tourist itineraries as well as many local school groups.

The currrent building is believed to be the third Byzantine church constructed on this site.  A frieze of lambs is thought to be from the second building, built in 415, and destroyed by fire.

The entrance hall arched ceiling is covered with exquisite mosaics.

The dome was the largest built at that time and for the next 1000 years.  Not until St. Peter's in Rome, was a larger dome built.  The dome is 56 meters in height or about 20 stories.  This Byzantine dome had major influence in Ottoman mosque architecture as well as modern day mosque architecture.

In each of the four corners supporting the dome, is a seraphim - a six winged angel charged with caretaking of God's throne.  During the time period the building was used as a mosque, the faces of the seraphim were covered.  Archeaologists have now uncovered the face of one of the seraphim and it is very sweet.

The walls of Hagia Sohpia are covered in rare marbles from the region.  Marble was cut into two or four pieces and opened, like a book to display symmetric designs.

The volume of space in the building is as awesome today as it was to Emperor Justinian, when he first saw it. 

During the Byzantine time period mosaics were added to the walls in all the subsequent centuries.  Empress Zoe established a mosaic of herself, ... 

and her husband on either side of Jesus.  Pictured is Zoe's third husband, Constantine IX, who was on the throne from 1042 - 1055.  As the title of Emperor came through her line, her previous husbands were Emperors and were depicted in the mosaic in earlier years.  It is difficult to see, but Zoe is holding a scroll with Constantine's name, which being longer than the first two husbands, did not fit well and a few characters dropped to a second line.

Hagia Sophia always has some restoration work in progress with associated scaffolding. 

Bronze doors, dated to the 2nd century B.C., brought to Hagia Sophia in the 9th century by Emperor Theophilos were originally from a pagan temple in Tarsus.

If you are interested in reading more about the Byzantine time period, Judith Herrin has an excellent book, titled "Byzantium" with a chapter dedicated to The Church of Hagia Sophia.

Mosaic Museum

In Sultanahmet Square, if you find the correct small road, you are led to the Mosaics Musuem, which houses restored mosaics from a Byzantine period palace. Austrian and Turkish groups worked on the excavation and restoration of the mosaics. Unlike the mosaics in the churches, these have no religious themes. The most common theme was hunting, some rather bloody with animals gorging other animals. Here are some of the more pastoral scenes, including boys with a bird. The museum had an upper walkway, where we could look down on the massive mosic tiled floor below. This is just one half of the floor.

There were also some horses at pasture,...

boy playing with the ducks, ...

and boy holding a lamb. These last two boys may be the same boy. They look alike.

And this piece was titled "mask".

If anyone is disappointed that there are no bloody hunting scenes, send me an e-mail and I will send you the bear eating the lamb. I sure hope it was not the one the boy was playing with!

Pammakaristos or Fethiye Museum

Yesterday's adventure was to find the Fethiye Museum, originally one of two churches named Pammakaristos. The location required me to take a ferry down the Golden Horn to the Fener stop. The Golden Horn is one of the bays off of the Bosphorus and it is very long and skinny. This was my first time on such a fancy ferry... The inside was luxurious with monitors for live TV.

Upon arriving in Fener, the roads were cobbled and in good shape.

Old Istanbul is built on 7 hills. I climbed about 13 of them to get to the Fethiye Museum. The day was overcast and cool with fairly strong winds, so that helped quite a bit.

The original Pammakaristos church is now a mosque. But back in the 14th century, the wife of the patron who had the church built, had a second smaller funerary chapel built adjacent to the original structure. This smaller structure is now a museum and houses some of the better Byzantine mosaics in Istanbul.

The brickwork inside is as pretty as the brickwork outside.

Here is the central dome with a beautiful mosaic of Jesus and 12 old testament prophets.
Yes, I can hear Bill saying that he wished I had a better camera... I will go back and try to take better pictures.

Inside, there is also a fresco of the three wise men.

I had the place to myself, except for the two attendants who took my $3 admission outside and one attendant inside who tracked me. I think I drove him crazy, as I kept going back and forth between the sign noting the mosaics, frescoes, markings, etc. and the actual item. He got his workout following me around.

There were no candles lit in the church, but as you can see, they are prepared in the event of a fire, albeit a very small contained one.

After my visit, I walked down the hill and walked along the Golden Horn to the Kadir Has University. They have a small museum down one level from the street entrance to the building. They have excavated some of the old brick walls below this part of the city and house their archaeological collections around the walls. It was a very impressive display, of which they allow no photos..., so we end on the fire remediation system.