Constructed by East Roman Empire and was the biggest church in Istanbul. Before they built Hagia Sophia church, there were 2 more churches in the same location.
The meaning of Hagia Sofia is holy wisdom. They constructed this amazing and biggest cathedral on February 532 – December 537 by Emperor Justinianos’s orders. The Architects were Isidoros from Milet and Anthemios fromTralles.
They completed this huge church in 5 years. The dome is 55.60m height and 31.87 m radius. The columns and marbles have been taken from ancient cities, Anatolia, Syria, Aspendus Ephesus and Baalbek. Because this was the church of everybody and not only church of people who lived in the city. The church has a total of 104 columns and 40 in the lower and 64 in the upper gallery. Some of these columns brought from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
They used gold, silver, glass, terracotta and colorful stones to make the mosaics. The celling of church mostly covered with gold mosaics and walls decorated with marbles.
