Hagia Sophia

Introduction

Hagia Sophia, Aya Sofia, the temple of the Holy (God) in Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey), is the greatest building of late antiquity, a masterpiece of Byzantine art. The temple was built on the orders of Emperor Justinian I by architects Anthemios of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus in the years, 532-537. It was the church of the palace, which is linked directly to the buildings of the imperial residence.

Hagia Sophia basilica dome, connect the central assumption of the longitudinal characteristics of the building. Establishment of quadrilateral (77 to 72 m), divided into three naves. Covered with flattened central nave, supported by pendentives, the dome with a diameter of 31.5 m achieved an extension of the nave. Placed over the side aisles, galleries open onto the nave.

Discussion

From the outside, the Hagia Sophia is a harmonious burst of powerful blocks, the interior impresses with ease (especially the dome rising 50 meters above floor level). The interior was richly decorated with mosaics, inlay wall. The Turks, after the occupation of Constantinople, turned the temple into a mosque, added four minarets (distortion of the original silhouette buildings) and destroyed most of the interior decoration. Since 1934, the Hagia Sophia is a museum. As a result of maintenance work, uncovered large parts of surviving mosaics. Hagia Sophia became a model for Turkish architects who built on the pattern of dome mosques.

When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was already converted to a mosque soon. The value of Christian art was recognized by Sultan Mehmed II, the special of the mosaics; however, he did not destroy them, but did impose this mostly with Muslim symbols. The biggest change in the appearance, however, was the addition of four large minarets around the church. Under Ataturk, the first president of Turkey, the Hagia Sophia Museum was declared to many of the Christian mosaics in 1932.

Architectural and Historical Classification

The Hagia Sophia is one of the outstanding buildings of late antiquity, and is the most important example of the type of a domed basilica. The domed basilica united components, reach back far into the past. These include already in Roman republican period incurred basilicas, as places of assembly, and the jurisdiction of the market, and the domes of Roman mausoleums as the created empire.

The most striking element of the Hagia Sophia, the monumental dome, dominates the whole interior. It rests on pendentives between four massive piers. The north and south of the rectangular central building of the side thrust of long wall work is intercepted over the aisles. To the west and east, this task is performed by conches with half-domes; the abutment is in turn in a total of four smaller domes. Above the narthex is the emperor stands on each side and a gallery for the women. The importance of the history of architecture dome lies not in its size, as early as the 1st Century AD. The attempt to increase the architectural challenge with an extremely flat dome failed because of repeated ...