Istanbul Diary - Day 3: The Aya Sofia - more layers than Shrek!

What else can you say about a building that has been built, re-built, destroyed, re-built again, vandalised, usurped, modified, strengthened and restored?

That's more facelifts than Michael Jackson and more layers than Shrek definitely.  (I still remember with amusement Donkey, mocking Shrek's onion-like layers)

I was not the most keen of history students by any stretch of imagination - I still have not come across a child who likes history - and I have to confess that before our Istanbul trip, I had just a vague and foggy notion about Hagia Sophia.  Isn't it some church built in Constantinople, was the extent of my history and art awareness.  And if I had not visited, that was where it would've probably stayed.  Travel does open my eyes, definitely.

So, here's Aya Sofia for dummies:

• Also known as Hagia Sophia - Sophia meaning Holy Wisdom
• Originally built in the 4th century as a wooden structure by Constantius.  Burnt down in 404 AD
• Rebuilt  in 415.  Burnt again in 532, in the aftermath of the Nika Revolt.
• Justinian puts down the revolt and immediately orders rebuilding of this church.  Hires Messrs Anthemius & Isidorus.  The former an architect and the latter a mathematician.
• Five years, and it is ready.  The Roman/Byzantine empire has seen nothing like it.
• A huge dome on a square base was being tried for the first time.  Dome on cylinder had been done, but not dome on square.  Thus, is the pendentive system born, with a series of arches to support the dome.
• But the dome was too heavy, and the outward thrust on the supporting walls too much, so it had to be buttressed and supported.  I think maintaining it proved quite the white elephant for the Romans/Byzantines.
• More restorations in the 10th century
• Vandalisation by the iconoclasts (7th/8th century) and the Fourth Crusaders, 1204 (imagine that!). 
• 1453 - Ottomans conquer Constantinople.  Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque.  Islamic elements added, Christain mosaics whitewashed.  But Sinan, the architect was instrumental in restoring the crumbling building.
• 1935 - Ataturk converts it into a museum.  Restoration started by the Fosetti brothers, continues on.

And here I was in 2008, rather sceptical of what all the hoo-ha about the building was.  Well look at it.  Doesn't it look like some overgrown, rustic village barn from outside?  
Stones from the original 4th century church

But when I entered, I involuntarily gasped. The space and the light and the sophistication of the finish has to be experienced.

Even my hard-to-surprise twelve-year old son was a bit awestruck (albeit temporarily) by it all.

The aisle around the central nave with mosaiced ceilings, from the time of JustinianThe central nave was filled with tourists all looking around in wonderment and there was a buzz in the air, but it still had this feeling of space and immensity to it.  These lovely marbled pillars (look at the intricate carvings of the capital) surrounded the hall, in the lower storey, and lined the upper gallery as well.

And then you craned your neck upwards to the central dome, which is now painted over with Islamic designs.  There are a row of windows all around the base of the dome, and it filters the light in, removing the heaviness of the dome.

My mind boggled at the level of sophistication in the architectural design of this ancient building.  




Doors of history


The middle door, with an emperor prostrating in front of Jesus, while the Virgin mary and gabriel are enclosed in bubbles. You see, its not our video cameramen who thought of this effect, its been there from antiquity, well almost!



The door on the far right looks like it was taken off some pagan temple and dumped here.

This bronze door dates back to the second century BC

Christian Mosaics

To get a larger view, click on the pictures

All of these seem to have been added in the 9th-10th centuries.  When you look at them with the naked eye, they just look like paintings, but when you see them with a binoculars, since they are up and away on the ceilings, you realise they are mosaics, small 1cm bits of marble arranged to form these giant portraits.

The original 5th and 6th century mosaics were more decorative than figurative it appears.  there were also a pantheon of saints and angels lining the upper walls of the nave, but these were destroyed by the iconoclasts, in the 7th-8th century, and these Jesus ones were added with each emperor.

Jesus, Mary and John the Baptist - wonder why poor Joseph hasn't got a look-see anywhere.  Must read up on this.  John is pleading with Jesus, something to do with Judgement Day, and the bottom half is all damaged

So, here's Jesus with Constantine and wife Zoe. The interesting thing is that the heads have been scratched out and redone. Empress Zoe seems to have had an interesting life. I read somewhere about a previous husband Romanos III

This Mary and Jesus is 9th century and was done after the iconoclasts had come and gone.  (I also learned about the iconoclasts - who decided that the commoners were getting too fond of their miracle-makers and saints, and decided to get rid of all the icons.  Obviously the IPL bosses dont figure in this bunch, since they went about creating icons, all of whom failed miserably.)

My son pointed out the gold dots on the shoulders and forehead, which along with Jesus in the lap makes a cross.  Any significance?

Mary and Jesus are flanked by Constantine offering the city of Constantinople, and Justinian offering Hagia Sophia

The Ottomans make their mark

Buttresses were added to keep the walls from falling out As also these large dramatic leather pendants - 7.5m in dia
The Mihrab replaced the altar
 A mimbar was erected



Calligraphy on the dome, and the Sultan's special seat
 And the minarets, at different points in time.  Supposedly the minarets are of different dimensions because the architect Sinan used them as counterweights, to keep the Aya Sofia from crumbling, and different weights were needed at the different points.

Ingenious, to say the least.