HAGIA SOPHIA-an amazing structure

Hagia Sophia

Maybe some of you don’t know that Islam once lead Europe that is nowdays more known as a dominant christian continent. This is prove by buildings in Europe with islamic architecture, one of them is Hagia Sophia or formerly called Aya Sofya. But there is one unique fact about this building: at the beginning it was a church, than a Mosque, and now it’s a museum. How can that happen? Let’s check out!

Hagia Sophia in that means “pure sagacity”(or in turkish language ‘Aya Sophia’) is an one of the spectacular icon of Istanbul beside the Blue Mosque. It was built around 15 centuries ago or at 558 C by Caisar Justianus and took 6 years to be finished. Cool, isn’t it? The building itself did collapse for several times because of earthquake but it was built again.

The architecture of Hagia Sophia is very amazing. The design of  the building is called Byzantium Design and is the best at it’s era. From outside you can see a huge dome, the high is around 54 meters and it’s diameter is around 30 meters. If you go inside, you will see a beautiful interior design decorate with mosaic and fresco carves. People that have visited Hagia Sophia said that it’s aura is different than other building in Istanbul.

The beautiness of Hagia Sophia wasn't able to be done if there wasn't Anthemios and Isidorus, the architects that designed Hagia Sophia with a new a style. The style was inspired from islamic architecture from persian and syriah. Islamic architects made domes from lighter bricks compared to domes at that time so that it wasn't so expensive. They combined the dome from islamic architecture and a long hall that is normally used in churces.

The Interior view of Hagia Sophia

Behind the great architecture is also a great history too. First, Hagia Sophia, as I mentioned above, was meaned to be a church. The caisar of Byzantium wanted to built a big and fantastic catedral. It was even called as Holy Wisdom Church. Hagia Sophia was a churh about 10 centuries, or exactly 916 years.

Muhammad Al-Fatih when he
occupied Constantinopel

But then at Tuesday, May 29th 1453, Constantinopel (the name of Istanbul years ago) was occupied by Sulthan Mehmed II or well known as Muhammad Al-Fatih. Many things was revised by him. Hagia Sophia changed it’s function to a Mosque and it’s name also changed to Hagia Aya. The good point from Muhammad Al-Fatih is that he didn’t destroyed the frescos and images on the wall, he just covered them with calighrapy and removed the statues. The christianic symbole (cross) on the top was switch with a crescent . Along the khalifah of Turk Utsmani ruled Hagia Sophia has been renovated and 4 towers has been built.

But sadly, when turkey changed to a republic, Mustofa Kemal Ataruk made Hagia Sophia as a museum at 1937.  Some designs that symbolized Islam was removed. So, like we can see now, Hagia Sophia contains both Islamic and Christanic symboles. Because of it’s age and it’s beauty, UNESCO at 1985 assigned Hagia Sophia as one of the World Herritage Side.

This building is not just wonderful because it’s great design and history. Behind all of that we can also learn to tolerate each other even when our religion is different. Muhammad Al-Fatih made a wise decision to not remove all christian symboles.

Source:

http://hijupblog.tumblr.com/post/44778817809/jejak-kejayaan-islam-di-istanbul-turki
http://wisata.kompasiana.com/jalan-jalan/2013/08/12/hagia-sophia-awalnya-adalah-gereja-lalu-masjid-dan-kini-jadi-musium-583658.html
http://sahabatakhi.blogspot.com/2014/05/hagia-sophia-gereja-yang-menjadi-masjid.html

http://www.republika.co.id/berita/ensiklopedia-islam/khazanah/09/08/24/71362-aya-sofia-akulturasi-budaya-islam-kristen