"Solomon, I have outdone thee!"

The title of this blog post is quoting the emperor Justinian, as recorded by Prokopios.  In the Nika Riots of 532 AD, a huge swathe of Constantinople was burned to the ground.  Numerous churches built in the 4th and 5th centuries were destroyed, among them the Hagia Sophia--the Church of Holy Wisdom--constructed by Constantius I, then rebuilt by Theodosius II.  In response, Justinian commissioned a new Hagia Sophia, a church to be unrivaled in all of Christendom.

View from the entrance gate

He succeeded.  This massive church--completed in just 5 years--was the largest in the world, until the construction of the cathedral in Seville, about 1000 years later.  The dome was constructed in such a way that it appeared to be suspended from the heavens, as there are no pillars supporting it; it simply rests on 4 corners of the building.  While this was possible in smaller churches it had never been attempted on such a scale (and in fact, during an earthquake in the late 6th century, the original dome collapsed.  The current one is slightly more rounded and less shallow to compensate.).  No expense was spared during construction, and it was the perfect picture of opulence inside.  When construction was completed and his architects led him into the massive structure, Justinian fell to his knees and proclaimed "Solomon, I have outdone thee!" (referencing Solomon's construction of the temple in Jerusalem).  Even now, with so much of the interior changed, it's easy to see why:

This place is so big I can't even fit the whole thing in a single shot, and to call it breathtaking is an understatement.  I've seen lots of pictures and read lots of descriptions about Hagia Sophia, and so I was half expecting to be sort of let down.  I can assure you that I wasn't.  Even if the church was entirely bare it would be impressive; it's hard to explain the scale of the building.  Pictures with people in them help somewhat though:

If you look at those columns up in the gallery, you can see the top halves of some people.  From my camera to them is about 3/4 of the largest distance within the church, and you can plainly see not only how far away they are from, but also just how tall this building is.  And that's not even counting the dome:

It's hard to show, but those columns in the lower left corner are the same level as the people in the previous picture.  Look how much farther up the top of the dome is!  The interior height is over 180 feet, and the dome's diameter is about 100 feet.  Justinian wanted a dome that looked as though it hung from the heavens, and that is certainly what he got.

Originally covered (and I mean covered) in mosaics, after the Turkish conquest of 1453 most of the interior was covered up with plaster and then painted because of the Muslim prohibition of images.  Many of the mosaics survive beneath the plaster, and there are also a variety that are exposed.  However, thanks to iconoclasm--the 8th-9th century movement that attempted to cease the veneration of icons--little to none of the original decoration remains in the church.  So what remains is later, but rather impressive nonetheless:

Virgin and Child, in the apse

Justinian on the left, presenting the Hagia Sophia, the Virgin and Child, Constantine on the right presenting Constantinople

The (very blurry) Archangel Michael

Emperor Alexander

Probably the most well-known Byzantine mosaic (at least in Constantinople), of Mary, Christ, and John the Baptist

John II Komnenos, Virgin and Child, and Empress Eudoxia

Constantine IX Monomachos, Christ, and Empress Zoe.  Probably a bit hard to see in this picture, but Constantine's head has been altered; Empress Zoe was married three times, and Constantine was her final husband.  The mosaic probably previously displayed her two former husbands (they were emperors by virtue of being married to her).

Sorry for the poor quality of some of these pictures; the lighting was rather tricky.  Hopefully you at least get an impression of the skill and time necessary to create something like this.  At this point I'm not sure what else to show; I took about 150 pictures of Hagia Sophia, but to show them all would get repetitive.  I am in the process of setting up a Photobucket account, where you'll be able to see ALL the shots I took in a given day.  Details soon, hopefully.  Before leaving this magnificent place though, here's a shot of me inside:

After this, Kyle and I went to the Archaeological Museum.  I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a few choice pieces:

The so-called Alexander Sarcophagus, found in Sidon in the 19th century and made in the last quarter of the 4th century BC

7th century icon, the oldest surviving pre-Iconoclasm icon from Constantinople

Saint Eudoxia

We were planning on doing more today, but we were both pretty tired (I think yesterday's walking caught up with us) so we called it a day a bit early.  Tomorrow we should be checking out the Theodosian walls (in my opinion, the most impressive fortification ever constructed), the Studion (the monastery responsible for ended iconoclasm),  Chora Church (full of 13th-15th century mosaics), the Orthodox Patriarchate, and the Pantokrator monastery.  It sounds like a lot, but it's all in the same area more or less.  We'll see how it goes. Until next time!