Hagia Sophia Cathedral

Hagia Sophia is a mosque in Istanbul, and in the past a successively Christian temple, mosque and museum. It is considered the most important work of Byzantine architecture.

The original building was built as the Church of the Wisdom of God (also known as the Great Church). It was the highest-ranking temple of Byzantium, a patriarchal cathedral and place of prayers and coronations of Byzantine emperors, an unsurpassed example of a perfect temple for centuries, and almost a symbol of the Byzantine Church. Founded by Justinian I the Great, it was built in its present form between 23 February 532 and 27 December 537. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453, it was converted into a mosque (then minarets were added). From 1934 to July 2020, the temple operated as a museum. After the decision of the Turkish administrative court to invalidate the decree of 1934 and the decision of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it was again converted into a mosque.