X-Nico

13 unusual facts about Hagia Sophia


Anna Dalassene

As stated in the Alexiad, when Isaac and Alexios left Constantinople in mid-February 1081 to raise an army against Botaneiates, Anna quickly and surreptitiously mobilized the remainder of the family and took refuge in the Hagia Sophia.

Bückeburg

The cupola is adorned by an impressive gold mosaic, the second largest of its kind after the one in the Hagia Sophia.

Cankurtaran railway station

Cankurtaran station is just a block north of Kennedy Boulevard, along with the shoreline and a few blocks south of the Hagia Sophia and the Imperial Gate to the Topkapı Palace.

Church of St. Mary of the Mongols

Under the church are visible excavations, and an underground passage said to reach Hagia Sophia (although the two buildings are several kilometers apart).

Church of the Redeemer, Bad Homburg

Finished in 1908, the building is outwardly of a heavy, romanesque revival appearance, while its interior is held in a neo-Byzantine style, with rich marble wall decorations and gold mosaics covering the domed ceiling, leading to the church sometimes being called 'Bad Homburg's Hagia Sophia'.

Ken Dark

He holds honorary professorships from several European and American universities, has written numerous books and academic articles and has directed and co-directed many excavations and survey projects, both in Britain and the Middle East including in Istanbul (Turkey) – where since 2004 he has co-directed a new archaeological study of the famous Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia and its environs – and in and around Nazareth (Israel).

Megali Idea

However, the city fell to a different foe in 1453—the Muslim Turk—and this fall of Constantinople marked the nadir of Byzantine civilization; the city was comprehensively sacked and looted; the Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque.

Secret of the Sultan

The film was shot on location in Istanbul, Turkey, at such historic landmarks as Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Yildiz Palace and the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.

SimCity DS

Real-world landmarks featured in SCDS include the Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Big Ben, Statue of Liberty, White House, Grand Central Terminal, Palacio Real, Moai, Capitol Records Building, United Nations Headquarters and Hagia Sophia.

Soltaniyeh

It is one of the largest brick domes in the world, just at the theoretical engineering limit for a brick dome and the third largest dome in the world after the domes of Florence Cathedral and Hagia Sophia.

St. Anne's Anglican Church

The current building, dating to 1907-8 and overlooking Dufferin Street, is noted for its distinctive design, based on the architecture of the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople.

Theodora Doukaina Vatatzaina

In September Michael was crowned Emperor a second time in the cathedral of Hagia Sophia; although D. Geanakoplos assumes that Theodora also received a second coronation, this is not expressly stated by Pachymeres.

Thomas Whittemore

His good personal relationship with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder and the first president of the Turkish Republic, enabled him to gain permission from the Turkish government to start the preservation of the Hagia Sophia mosaics in 1931.


Agnes of Montferrat

According to Villehardouin, the marriage took place in Hagia Sophia, Constantinople on the Sunday following Candemass.

Akathist

Quercius (P.G., XCII, 1333 sqq.) assigns it to George Pisida, deacon, archivist, and sacristan of Hagia Sophia whose poems find an echo both in style and in theme in the Akathist; the elegance, antithetic and balanced style, the vividness of the narrative, the flowers of poetic imagery being all very suggestive of his work.

Column of Justinian

It stood in the western side of the great square of the Augustaeum, between the Hagia Sophia and the Great Palace, and survived until the early 16th century, when it was demolished by the Ottomans.

Science in the Middle Ages

In early Byzantium (5th to 7th century) the architects and mathematicians Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles used complex mathematical formulas to construct the great “Hagia Sophia” temple, a magnificent technological breakthrough for its time and for centuries afterwards due to its striking geometry, bold design and height.