The Hagia Sophia is one of the most interesting and mysterious buildings left from the ancient world. Its purpose was not practicality; it served as a symbol of innovation and advancement. Built by the Byzantine’s greatest architects, this grand and enormous structure provokes architectural admiration to this day, due to its ability to withstand 1500 years of nature’s battering and earthquakes. The structural integrity of Hagia Sophia awes architects from around the world, and they all want answers to why this structure still stands, and for how long.  

The Hagia Sophia was actually the third church built in the same location, preceded by the Megálē Ekklēsíā (“Great Church”). Just weeks after the second church burnt to the ground in 532, Emperor Justinian I ordered a new church, grander and more extravagant than any before, to be built. He hired physicist Isidore of Miletus and mathematician Anthemius of Tralles to head this enormous project. The building reached completion in the year 537, and first served as an Orthodox cathedral. At the core of Hagia Sophia’s design lays the purpose of worship, specifically Christian worship. The ideal setup for Christian use during this time consisted of a rectangular room with an apse, which stationed a priest. Ruler Justinian of the new Byzantium empire sought to maintain this structure, while simultaneously wanting to symbolize this glorious new empire and his new power. He drew off of the grand domes of other civilizations to achieve this. The problem was that while domes had previously been constructed, it had not been done on a rectangular base.

At its tallest, the ceiling stands 180 feet high in the large central dome, above the nave and dotted by forty arched windows. To support this, four smaller arches surround it, and together create the main support system of the entire structure. To make the church a rectangle, the architects came up with devices called pendentives- triangular segments that fill in gaps of the arches. On each end, there were two semi-domes backed by four giant pillars. These semi domes further expand the rectangular floor plan. It’s main architectural features include the nave, exedra, narthex, apse, and parapets. A nave is just an enormous main room, without a real main purpose. The exedra is a semicircular room with benches; its purpose could be worship or conversation. There are exedras built off of both the east and west domes in this structure. The narthex is located at the entrance; this is reserved for an emperor, and has a long ramp that leads to the upper gallery. In the Hagia Sophia, the upper gallery can be accessed by five doors. Nine more doors in the inner narthex lead to the nave. A Byzantine mosaic of Christ and an unknown emperor is portrayed above the narthex.  The apse, a large recess at the east end, is reserved for an altar. A magnificent mosaic of the Virgin Mary decorates the space above the apse.

Although best known for its architectural greatness, Hagia Sophia holds awesome artistic value with its great marble pillars and mosaics. Sophia contains marble parapets that make up the ledges, measuring 60 centimeters thick. The interior contains polychrome marbles, green, white, and purple porphyry, and nearly four acres worth of gold mosaics. Precious materials to create such a structure came from all of the Mediterranean; Hagia Sophia was a true symbol of innovation, beauty, and plain splendor.

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia#Apse_mosaics

https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/index.php/Hagia_Sophia#Alzado\

http://ayasofyamuzesi.gov.tr/en/history