Istanbul

Istanbul (known in English as Constantinople) is Turkey’s most populous city, and its cultural and economic center. The city is the capital of the Province of Istanbul. Is located on the Bosphorus strait, and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn, in the Northwest of the country. Istanbul extends both on the European and Asian side of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world which is situated on two continents. Istanbul is also the only city in the world which served as the capital to three different Empires: The Roman Empire (330-395), Byzantine Empire (395-1453) and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1923). In 1923, following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the capital was moved to Ankara.

According to the 2000 census, the population was 8,803,468 (city proper) and 10,018, 735 (metro area), making it the second largest city in Europe. The census bureau estimate the July 2005 population to have grown to 11,322,000 for the province, which is generally considered the metropolitan area, making it one of the twenty largest metropolitan areas in the world. The city was chosen as one of the European Capital of Culture for 2010 (along with Pecs, Hungry and Essen, Germany). The city has had many names through the years and according to the culture, language, and religion of its inhabitants. Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul are examples that may still be found in active use. It has been nicknamed “The City on Seven Hills” because the historic peninsula (the oldest part of the city) was built on seven hills, also represented with seven mosques, one at the top of each hill.

Byzantium was originally settled by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas. The name “Byzantium” is a transliteration of the original Greek. After siding with Pescennisu Niger against the victorious Septimis Severus the city was besieged by Rome and suffered extensive damage in 196 AD. Byzantium was rebuilt by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and quickly regained its previous prosperity.

The location of Byzantium attracted Constantine the Great and in 330. He refounded it as Nova Roma, or Constantinoupolis after himself following a prophetic dream that was said to have identified the location of the city. Although, the name Nova Roma never came into common use. The Eastern Roman Empire which had its capital in Constantinople from then until the conquest of the empire in 1453, has often been called the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium by modern scholars.

The combination of imperialism and location would play an important role as the crossing point between two continents (Europe and Asia), and later a magnet for Africa and others as well, in terms of commerce, culture, diplomacy, and strategy. At a strategic position, Constantinoupolis was able to control the route between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea.

Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantine times the Greeks called Constantinople I Poli (The City), since it was the center of the Greek world and for the most of the Byzantine period, the largest city in Europe. It was captured and sacked by the Forth Crusade in 1204 and then re-captured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeogus in 1261.

With the fall of Rome and the Western Roman Empire, the name of the city was changed to Constantinople and became the sole capital of what historians now call the Byzantine Empire. The empire was distinctly Greek in culture, and became the center of Greek Othodox Christianity after an earlier split with Rome, and was adorned with many magnificent churches, including Hagia Sophia, once the world’s cathedral. It is the seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia (The church of Holy Wisdosm), now known as the Ayasofya Museum, is a former Eastern Orthodox church converted to a mosque in 1453 by the Turks, and converted into a museum in 1935. It is located in the Turkish city of Istanbul. It is universally acknowledged as one of the greatest buildings of the world and sometimes considered the Eighth Wonder of the World. Its conquest by the Ottomans at the fall of Constantinople is considered as of the great tragedies of Christianity by the Greek Orthodox faithful.

The name comes from the Greek name meaning “Church of the Holy Wisdom of God.” It also is also known as Sancta Sophia in Latin and Ayasofya in Turkish.

Hagia Sophia is covered by a central dome with a diameter of 31 meters (102 feet) and 56 meters high, slightly smaller than the Pantheon’s. The dome seems rendered weightless by the unbroken arcade of arched windows under it, which help flood the colorful interior with light.

The dome is carried on pendantives, for concave triangular sections of masonry which solve the problem of setting the circular base of a dome on a rectangular base. At Hagia Sophia the weight of the dome passes through the pendantives to four massive piers at the corners. Between them the dome seems to float upon four great arches. At the Western (entrance) and Eastern (liturgical) ends, the arched openings are extended by half domes carried on smaller semidomed exedras. Thus a hierarchy of dome-headed elements builds up to create a vast oblong interior crowned by the main dome, a sequence unrepeated in antiquity. All interior surfaces are sheathed with polychrome marbles, green and white with purple porphyry and gold mosaics, encrusted upon the brick. On the exterior, simple stuccoed walls reveal the clarity of the massed vaults and domes.

History of the Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia was the seat of the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople and a principal setting for Byzantine imperial ceremonies.

The structure has been severely damaged several times by earthquakes. The dome collapsed after an earthquake in 558; its replacement fell in 563. There were additional partial collapses in 989 after which an Armenian architect named Tradat was commissioned to repair the damage.

During the Latin Occupation (1204-1261) the church became a Roman Catholic Cathedral. After the Turks invaded Constantinople, Hagia Sophia was forcibly converted to a mosque in 1453. In1935, under Turkish president Kemal Ataturk, Hagia Sophia was turned into the Ayasofya Museum.

For almost 500 years it was the principal mosque of Istanbul, Ayasofya served as model for many of the Ottoman mosques such as the Shehzade Mosque, the Suleiman Mosque, and the Rustem Pasha Mosque.

Because Islam considers the depiction of the human form to be blasphemous, many mosaics were destroyed and others were covered with plaster. The Ottoman Sultans, however, periodically removed the plaster to service and maintain the mosaics, before replastering. Many restorations and repairs were done by Ottoman architects. The most famous and extensive work was done by Mimar Sinan in the 16th century, which included the addition of structural supports to the exterior of the building, the replacement of the old minarets with the minarets that stand today, and the addition of Islamic pulpits and art.

The 19th century restoration of the Fossati brothers, which included the addition of a pulpit and the four medallions on the walls of the nave bearing the names of Muhammad and the first caliphs, destroyed many of the original mosaics.

Restoration work in the 20th century was begun in 1932 by the American Byzantine Institute, during which most of the figures were uncovered.

Due to its long history as both a church and a mosque, a particular challenge arises in the restoration process. The Christian iconographic mosaics are being gradually uncovered. However, in order to do so, important, historic Islamic art would have to be destroyed. Restorers have attempted to maintain a balance between both Christian and Islamic cultures. In particular, much controversy rests upon whether the Islamic calligraphy on the dome of the cathedral should be removed, in order to permit the underlying Pantocrator mosaic of Christ as Master of the World, to be exhibited.