50 Fun Facts About Hagia Sophia

Justinian's church was inaugurated with great pomp on 27 December of which year?

Construction had taken five years and ten months; the second church on the site had burned in the Nika riots weeks before work began.

Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, designers of Justinian's church, were primarily what?

Both were associated with the school of the pagan philosopher Ammonius of Alexandria.

What does the name 'Hagia Sophia' mean?

The neighbouring, older Hagia Irene is 'Holy Peace'; neither is named after a saint.

The second church on the site was burned to the ground in January 532 during which uprising?

The riot began in the Hippodrome next door; Procopius wrote that the rioters 'had the hardihood to fire the Church of the Christians'.

On seeing the finished church, Justinian is said to have declared he had surpassed which biblical king?

The reference was to the Temple in Jerusalem; the new church took five years and ten months to build.

Roughly how many people were employed to build Justinian's church?

The initial funding, 4,000 Roman pounds of gold, came via the praetorian prefect Phocas.

The original dome collapsed in an earthquake in 558. Who rebuilt it, higher and ribbed, by 562?

The nephew of the original architect raised the vault by about 6.25 m, giving today's interior height of 55.6 m.

The main dome sits on four curved triangular supports, an early large-scale use of the form. What are they called?

They let a round dome sit on a square base, a trick copied in Ottoman mosques a thousand years later.

Roughly how far above the floor is the top of the central dome?

The dome rests on an arcade of 40 windows and is only about 0.61 m thick.

Which 12th-century abbey church ended Hagia Sophia's 500-year run as the world's largest church?

The great Burgundian abbey held the title until St Peter's in Rome.

Justinian had eight Corinthian columns shipped from which ancient city, now in Lebanon?

Most of the marble was actually cut specially for the church, despite the old story that the columns were spoils from Rome and Ephesus.

The floor is mostly Proconnesian marble, quarried on an island in which sea?

Mehmed II is said to have struck a soldier with his sword for trying to prise up one of the slabs in 1453.

Which emperor's 726 edicts against images led to all religious pictures being removed from Hagia Sophia?

Byzantine iconoclasm paused briefly under Empress Irene before returning; later mosaics date from after its final defeat.

Kievan Rus' emissaries said of Hagia Sophia they 'did not know where we were', in heaven or where?

The report is often credited with steering the Rus' toward Orthodox Christianity rather than Islam or Latin Christianity.

Which Rus' ruler was probably baptised in Hagia Sophia's baptistery in the 950s, taking the name Helena?

The regent for her infant son Sviatoslav; Kiev's own Saint Sophia cathedral probably commemorates her baptism.

Which Armenian architect did Basil II hire to repair Hagia Sophia's dome after the 989 earthquake?

The repairs took six years and the church reopened on 13 May 994 with new decorations.

The delivery of a papal excommunication in Hagia Sophia in 1054 is considered the start of what?

Cardinal Humbert, envoy of Pope Leo IX, laid the bull against Patriarch Michael Cerularius on the altar.

Runic graffiti in the northern gallery is believed to have been carved by members of which unit?

One inscription in the south gallery reads 'Halvdan was here', probably the work of a Viking mercenary in imperial service.

During which crusade was Hagia Sophia sacked and turned into a Latin Catholic cathedral in 1204?

The chronicler Niketas Choniates says mules were led into the sanctuary to carry off loot and one was disembowelled on the marble floor.

Which Venetian doge, who led the 1204 sack of Constantinople, is buried inside Hagia Sophia?

The Ottomans destroyed his tomb; the marker visible today is a 19th-century cenotaph placed by Italian restorers.

The Deësis mosaic in the upper gallery, probably from 1261, was commissioned to mark what?

It is one of the finest surviving Byzantine mosaics, showing Christ flanked by the Virgin and John the Baptist.

The 11th-century south gallery mosaic shows Christ flanked by Constantine IX and which empress?

The emperor's face and name were reworked, since Zoe outlived two earlier husbands who had occupied the same spot.

Empress Irene's blond plaits in the 1122 Comnenus mosaic reveal her descent from which country?

She was the daughter of King Ladislaus I; their eldest son Alexius appears on an adjacent pilaster.

Hagia Sophia's 'sweating column' has been moist, legend says, since which saint appeared beside it in 1200?

Visitors put a thumb in the hole and turn it, believing the moisture cures illness.

The Imperial Gate between the outer and inner narthex was originally reserved for whom?

The mosaic above it shows an emperor, probably Leo VI the Wise, prostrate before Christ Pantocrator.

On what date in 1453 did Constantinople fall to the Ottomans?

The building was looted during the customary three days of pillage before Mehmed ordered it converted into a mosque.

Hagia Sophia was Istanbul's principal mosque until 1616, when which new mosque took over the role?

The 'Blue Mosque' stands directly across the square, and its architecture openly imitates its neighbour.

Which sultan brought two colossal candlesticks from his conquest of Hungary and placed them beside the mihrab?

During his reign the mosaics of Jesus, Mary and the emperors were whitewashed over; the plaster came off in 1930.

Which Ottoman architect strengthened Hagia Sophia with buttresses and added two minarets under Selim II?

He also built Selim II's mausoleum beside the church, later the resting place of 43 Ottoman princes.

Murad III imported two large alabaster Hellenistic urns for the nave from which ancient city?

They still stand either side of the nave, near the entrance.

The major 1847-49 restoration was carried out by which pair of Swiss-Italian architect brothers?

Eight hundred workers consolidated the dome with an iron chain and made the minarets equal in height.

Besides Allah, Muhammad and his two grandsons, whose names are on the Hagia Sophia's eight giant medallions?

They were designed by the calligrapher Kazasker Mustafa Izzet Efendi and are among the largest in the Islamic world.

Who converted Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1935?

The carpets came up and the marble floor decorations were seen again for the first time since the Fossati restoration.

What did a Greek military priest perform in Hagia Sophia in 1919, for the only time since 1453?

Greece's 500 drachma banknote of 1923 pictured the building.

During the Second World War, what did the museum's minarets house?

Turkey stayed neutral until 1945, but MG 08 guns were mounted there just in case.

Roughly how many visitors did the Hagia Sophia museum attract in 2014?

It was Turkey's second most visited museum that year and its most visited attraction by 2019.

In what year did Turkey's Council of State reclassify Hagia Sophia as a mosque?

The first Friday prayers were held on 24 July, the anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, with the apse mosaics behind white drapes.

The council ruled that Hagia Sophia belonged to a foundation named after which sultan?

The reasoning was that the Conqueror had endowed it as a mosque for public use free of charge, beyond the reach of parliament.

Which Turkish Nobel laureate denounced the 2020 conversion of Hagia Sophia back into a mosque?

UNESCO and the World Council of Churches also objected; a presidential spokesman compared the new arrangement to Notre-Dame.

The first church on the site was consecrated in 360 under which emperor?

It was called simply the 'Great Church' and burned during riots after John Chrysostom's exile in 404.

The riots that burned the first church in 404 followed the exile of which Patriarch of Constantinople?

He had fallen out with the Empress Aelia Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius.

Which court historian described the church's construction in his book 'On Buildings' (De aedificiis)?

He claimed Christians would have prayed to see their old church destroyed if shown a model of the new one.

Roughly what is the diameter of the great dome?

Repairs over the centuries have left it slightly elliptical, and it is only about 0.61 m thick.

From January 2024, Hagia Sophia began charging an entrance fee to which visitors?

The fee was introduced in January 2024 as the upper galleries reopened to visitors, while most of the ground floor is reserved for worshippers.

Which poet composed an ekphrasis for the church's re-dedication on 24 December 562?

Patriarch Eutychius presided; the eastern semi-dome had collapsed in the 558 earthquake.

How many Ottoman princes are entombed in the türbe of Selim II beside Hagia Sophia?

Mimar Sinan built the mausoleum in 1576-77, pulling down part of the Patriarchate to make room.

Which sultan added a medrese, soup kitchen, library and fountain in 1739-40, making it a külliye?

Ahmed III had earlier renovated the crumbling interior plaster in 1717, indirectly preserving many mosaics.

Which Ottoman sultan converted Hagia Sophia's baptistery into his own tomb?

Murad III's türbe was built by court architect Davud Ağa in 1594; Mustafa I's reign was split between 1617-18 and 1622-23.

How many workers carried out the Fossati brothers' 1847-49 restoration?

Sultan Abdulmejid I ordered the work; the Fossatis also built a new maqsura and the Hünkar Mahfili sultan's entrance.

Who was the last Western visitor to report seeing the ancient Justinianic floor, in 1498?

Shortly afterwards the floor was covered with carpet and not seen again until the 19th century.