Timeline Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia 15

• 360 – 404 The first Hagia Sophia -- Constantius II The first church on the site of Hagia Sophia is built by Constantius II (son of Constantine) and dedicated on 15 February 360 -- a large timber-roofed basilica. It is burned during riots surrounding the exile of Archbishop John Chrysostom (404). A second church, built by Theodosius II and dedicated in 415, is a five-naved basilica; its entrance steps are still visible in the plaza outside the current building. This second church burns in the Nika Riots of 532, clearing the site for Justinian's masterpiece. Fragments of the Theodosian church -- carved marble doorsteps, column capitals with Theodosian monograms -- survive embedded in later structures.
• 532 – 537 Construction -- 10,000 workers, five years 10,000 workers build Hagia Sophia in five years and ten months (532-537). The speed is extraordinary for a building of this complexity. Special lightweight bricks are made from the volcanic rock of Rhodes for the dome. The porphyry and verde antico marble columns are stripped from pagan temples across the empire. The floor is covered with polychrome marble. 40 windows at the base of the dome create the illusion that the dome floats on light. The building's visual effect depends on the precise calibration of scale, light and material: visitors entering from the narthex experience the dome as suddenly opening above them, impossibly vast.
• 532 Nika Riots destroy the Theodosian church The second Hagia Sophia is burned during the Nika Riots of January 532. For Justinian, the destruction is an opportunity: he commissions a completely new building of unprecedented ambition within days of suppressing the riots. The architects he chooses -- Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus -- are not traditional architects but a mathematician and a physicist. Their approach is analytical rather than empirical: they calculate the geometry of the dome and pendentives mathematically, producing a structure that no craftsman-architect of the period could have conceived.
• 537 – 1453 Hagia Sophia as the centre of Orthodox Christianity For 916 years Hagia Sophia is the cathedral church of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the symbolic heart of Orthodox Christianity. Every Byzantine emperor is crowned here. The great liturgies of the Orthodox year are celebrated here. The church accumulates extraordinary treasures: relics including the True Cross, the Crown of Thorns and the stone from Christ's tomb; gold and silver vessels; mosaics of surpassing beauty; the enormous omphalion (navel of the world) marble slab where emperors are crowned. Procopius writes that it is 'distinguished by indescribable beauty, excelling both in its size and in the harmony of its measures.'
• 537 Dedication -- Solomon, I have surpassed you Hagia Sophia is dedicated on 27 December 537. Justinian enters on horseback, dismounts and runs to the centre of the nave. He raises his hands to heaven and says: 'Glory to God who has thought me worthy to finish this work. Solomon, I have surpassed you.' The comparison to Solomon's Temple is deliberate: Justinian sees himself as the builder of the supreme house of God, surpassing the greatest building of the Old Testament. The dedication ceremony involves the Patriarch, the entire court and thousands of clergy. The building is immediately recognised as unprecedented -- nothing like it exists anywhere in the world.
• 537 – 2024 Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) in Constantinople is the most consequential building in the history of world architecture -- the church that defined Byzantine civilisation for 916 years (537-1453), became a mosque after the Ottoman conquest (1453-1934), served as a museum (1934-2020) and is now a mosque again (2020-). Its central dome, 31.24 metres in diameter and raised 55.6 metres above the floor, appeared to contemporaries to float miraculously on light. It was the world's largest cathedral for nearly 1,000 years, the model for Ottoman mosque architecture, a source of inspiration for architects from Michelangelo to Christopher Wren, and the most visited monument in Turkey. Its history is the history of three civilisations.
• 553 – 563 The dome collapses and is rebuilt -- higher The eastern half of the dome collapses in an earthquake in 553, damaging the ambo and the altar. The dome is rebuilt by Isidore the Younger (nephew of the original architect) -- but rebuilt differently: the new dome is raised approximately 6.25 metres higher than the original, changing the building's proportions and reducing the horizontal thrust at the dome's base. The rebuilt dome is the dome that stands today. The original dome was shallower and its collapse may have been caused by the lateral thrust exceeding the capacity of the pendentives -- a structural problem the heightened rebuild addresses.
• 867 – 900 The great mosaics -- icons restored after iconoclasm The great mosaic programme of Hagia Sophia is created primarily in the Macedonian period (9th-11th centuries) after the end of iconoclasm. The Deesis mosaic (c.1261) in the upper gallery -- Christ enthroned between the Virgin and St John the Baptist -- is one of the masterpieces of medieval art. The apse mosaic of the Virgin and Child (867) is among the first mosaics installed after iconoclasm: Patriarch Photius's sermon at its unveiling is a landmark of Byzantine art criticism. The imperial portraits in the narthex and gallery -- Constantine IX, Zoe, John II Komnenos -- are unprecedented psychological studies in mosaic.
• 1054 The Great Schism -- excommunications on the altar On 16 July 1054, Cardinal Humbert, legate of Pope Leo IX, places a bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia, excommunicating Patriarch Michael Keroularios and his supporters. The Patriarch responds by excommunicating the papal legates. The Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches -- formally dated to this moment -- is played out in Hagia Sophia itself. The mutual excommunications are lifted in 1964 by Paul VI and Athenagoras I, but the schism remains unhealed.
• 1204 – 1261 Latin occupation -- the church desecrated When the Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople on 13 April 1204, Hagia Sophia is desecrated. The Crusaders break into the treasury, steal the gold and silver vessels, tear the silver iconostasis apart for the metal, and reportedly install a prostitute on the Patriarch's throne. A mule is brought into the building to carry away the booty and slips on the marble floor. The Latin Empire installs a Latin Patriarch in Hagia Sophia; the Orthodox Patriarch operates from Nicaea in exile. The desecration of Hagia Sophia is remembered by the Orthodox world as the defining act of Western betrayal.
• 1453 – 1934 Hagia Sophia as an Ottoman mosque -- 481 years As a mosque, Hagia Sophia is modified but not destroyed. Four minarets are added (the first immediately after the conquest; the others in the 16th century). The mosaics are plastered over rather than destroyed -- preserving them for later restoration. The mihrabs (prayer niches) and mimber (pulpit) are installed. Sinan, the greatest Ottoman architect, uses Hagia Sophia as the model and challenge for his own masterpiece, the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne (1574). The enormous circular calligraphic roundels bearing the names of Allah, Muhammad and the first caliphs are added in the 19th century and still hang in the building.
• 1453 The conquest -- Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque As Mehmed II's army enters Constantinople on 29 May 1453, crowds of terrified civilians take shelter in Hagia Sophia, believing an ancient prophecy that an angel will descend to defend it. No angel comes. The doors are broken open; the civilians are enslaved. Mehmed rides to Hagia Sophia, stops a soldier who is breaking up the marble floor, and declares the building his personal property. He calls for an imam and performs the first Islamic prayer in the building. The call to prayer is heard from its minarets for the first time. Mehmed orders the mosaics plastered over and the building converted to a mosque.
• 1934 Ataturk converts Hagia Sophia to a museum On 24 November 1934, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk signs the decree converting Hagia Sophia from a mosque to a museum -- a secular act intended to demonstrate the Turkish Republic's rejection of Ottoman religious identity and its embrace of a modern, inclusive national identity. The building opens as a museum on 1 February 1935. The mosaics are revealed as the plaster covering them is removed over subsequent decades. UNESCO designates it a World Heritage Site in 1985 as part of the Historic Areas of Istanbul. For 86 years it is the most visited tourist site in Turkey, welcoming millions of visitors of all faiths.
• 2020 Reconverted to a mosque -- 2020 On 10 July 2020, Turkey's Council of State annuls the 1934 cabinet decree that converted Hagia Sophia to a museum, and President Erdogan signs a decree transferring it to the Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs) for use as a mosque. The first Friday prayers are held on 24 July 2020. The conversion is welcomed in Turkey and across the Muslim world; it is condemned by the Greek government, UNESCO, the World Council of Churches, the United States and the European Union. The Byzantine mosaics remain uncovered but are hidden during prayer times by curtains or lighting adjustments. The building is open to non-Muslim visitors outside prayer times.
• 2024 Hagia Sophia today -- 1,487 years of history Hagia Sophia stands today as it has stood since 537 -- the great dome floating on its ring of windows, the marble floors worn by 15 centuries of footsteps, the golden mosaics glimpsed behind curtains. It has been a Christian cathedral, an Orthodox patriarchal church, a Catholic cathedral, an Ottoman mosque, a secular museum and an Islamic mosque again. No other building in the world has served so many civilisations, witnessed so many historical turning points, or embodied so directly the full arc of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern history. At 1,487 years old, it remains the most visited monument in Turkey and one of the most extraordinary buildings on earth.