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1500 Years, Two Faiths
Aya Sofya, Hagia Sofia or, in English, the Church of the Devine Wisdom is an architectural wonder that is said to define the heart and soul of Istanbul, Turkey. Built as a Greek Orthodox Church in AD 537 it was the world’s largest building, an engineering marvel of its time that is said to have changed the history of architecture.
Some 916 years later in 1453 the then Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire and the church was converted into a mosque. In 1953 the Republic of Turkey’s founder and first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk proclaimed that Hagia Sofia should become a museum where symbols of both religious faiths would be housed side by side.
Today Turkey’s highest Court is soon to make a monumentous ruling on whether the 1,500 year old Unesco World Heritage site will revert from a museum and become a mosque again in line with calls made by Turkey’s current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Regardless of the coming ruling, Hagia Sophia will continue to hold significant spiritual and cultural significance to billions of believers of two different faiths the world over.
1500 Years, Two Faiths
Aya Sofya, Hagia Sofia or, in English, the Church of the Devine Wisdom is an architectural wonder that is said to define the heart and soul of Istanbul, Turkey. Built as a Greek Orthodox Church in AD 537 it was the world’s largest building, an engineering marvel of its time that is said to have changed the history of architecture.
Some 916 years later in 1453 the then Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire and the church was converted into a mosque. In 1953 the Republic of Turkey’s founder and first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk proclaimed that Hagia Sofia should become a museum where symbols of both religious faiths would be housed side by side.
Today Turkey’s highest Court is soon to make a monumentous ruling on whether the 1,500 year old Unesco World Heritage site will revert from a museum and become a mosque again in line with calls made by Turkey’s current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Regardless of the coming ruling, Hagia Sophia will continue to hold significant spiritual and cultural significance to billions of believers of two different faiths the world over.