Lee 1 Kong Lee Professor Goodfriend ART 111 9/27/13

Hagia Sophia

In Instabul the Hagia Sophia was constructed from 537-1453 to be a Cathedral in the Ottoman Empire era. The Hagia Sophia was designed by a team of experts consisting of Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician. During the Ottoman Empire we must also not forget that this was the time art was still blooming throughout the Greece because of the fall of Rome forming Constantinople The Hagia Sophia serves as a great shrine to those that believed in the wisdom of God and the holy trinity of him. The Hagia Sophia is also considered as the epitome of Byzatine architecture because of the changed history of architecture. It was also the largest cathedral in the world for almost thousand years until Seville Cathedral built, which was completed in 1520. (MGB) This massive building was also the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site. The other two were destroyed rioters. Although the present day Hagia Sophia does not really serve the same purpose it did when it was created; due to the fall of Constantinople under the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Mehmed II. Many items such as bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels were removed and many of the mosaics were plastered over and Instead Islamic features like the mihrab, minbar, and four minarets were added while in the possession of the Ottomans. (MGB) Today the Hagia Sophia stores more than thousands of artistic relics and serves a museum to the public. In 1935, Hagia Sophia had been converted into a museum of Turkish Republic by the orders of Ataturk, and

Lee 2 became one of the most significant monuments not only in Turkey but on earth with its architecture and its historical richness. (HSI)

Lee 3 Citations

http://www.hagiasophia.com/listingview.php?listingID=18 http://www.hagiasophia.co