Hagia Sophia, Constantinople / Istanbul

Assembled from 66 blocks · 3 evidence · 79 related

1. Story
2. The great church of Holy Wisdom, built for Justinian I between 532 and 537 to designs by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, and dedicated on 27 December 537. Its structural claim is not size but geometry: it puts a circular dome about 31 m across on a square bay by means of pendentives, and then buttresses that dome longitudinally with two enormous half-domes so that the interior reads as a single flowing space rather than a rotunda. The first dome was shallow, and after earthquakes it fell in May 558; Isidore the Younger rebuilt it steeper - raising the crown by roughly six metres and so reducing the outward thrust - and the rebuilt dome was dedicated on 24 December 562. It has partially collapsed and been repaired again since, in the 10th and 14th centuries. The building was a church for nearly a millennium, an Ottoman mosque from 1453, a museum from the 1930s, and was reconverted to a mosque in July 2020. It stands within the UNESCO World Heritage property Historic Areas of Istanbul.
3. Knowledge
4. Constantinople
5. World Heritage Committee
6. The pendentive
7. The Pantheon, Rome
8. Hagia Sophia, Constantinople / Istanbul
9. Anthemius of Tralles
10. Connections
11. The Pantheon, Rome
12. Anthemius of Tralles
13. World Heritage Committee
14. Constantinople
15. The pendentive
16. Justinian commissions Hagia Sophia from two geometers
17. Hagia Sophia is dedicated
18. The first dome of Hagia Sophia collapses
19. The steeper dome is dedicated
20. Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae
21. Roman concrete (opus caementicium)
22. Rome
23. The dome
24. Roman concrete (opus caementicium)
25. Hagia Sophia, Constantinople / Istanbul
26. The Pantheon dome spans about 43 m in unreinforced concrete
27. Hagia Sophia, Constantinople / Istanbul
28. Justinian commissions Hagia Sophia from two geometers
29. Global Strategy for a Balanced, Representative and Credible World Heritage List (1994)
30. Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972)
31. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
32. ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites)
33. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)
34. The first properties are inscribed on the World Heritage List
35. Angkor inscribed on the World Heritage List and the danger list on the same day
36. The Committee adopts the Global Strategy for a Balanced, Representative and Credible World Heritage List
37. The cultural and natural criteria are merged into a single set of ten
38. Arabian Oryx Sanctuary deleted — the first site ever removed from the World Heritage List
39. Dresden Elbe Valley deleted — the second removal, by a vote of 14 to 5
40. Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City deleted — the third and most recent removal
41. The Committee declines, again, to place Venice on the danger list
42. Stonehenge
43. Hagia Sophia, Constantinople / Istanbul
44. Chartres Cathedral
45. Antioch on the Orontes
46. Dedication of Constantinople
47. Silkworm cultivation reaches Byzantium
48. Plague reaches the Mediterranean
49. Christianity
50. The 'Edict of Milan' — toleration and restitution in the Roman Empire
51. Dedication of Constantinople
52. Administrative division of the empire on the death of Theodosius I
53. Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus - the contested 'fall' of the Western Roman Empire
54. Compilation of the Corpus Iuris Civilis
55. Ottoman capture of Constantinople
56. Hagia Sophia, Constantinople / Istanbul
57. Justinian commissions Hagia Sophia from two geometers
58. Istanbul
59. The dome
60. Hagia Sophia, Constantinople / Istanbul
61. Justinian commissions Hagia Sophia from two geometers
62. Hagia Sophia is dedicated
63. Evidence
64. Collected structural and historical studies of Hagia Sophia, covering the pendentive system, the 558 dome collapse and the steeper 562 rebuilding, and the building's subsequent structural history. V55 verification basis: real and standard, not consulted in this session.
65. Near-contemporary description of Hagia Sophia and of its designers Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus, and the principal ancient literary source for the building. It is a panegyric written for Justinian and should be read as such, not as a construction record. V55 verification basis: the text was not read in this session and no specific passage is quoted here.
66. Hagia Sophia lies within the inscribed Historic Areas of Istanbul World Heritage property. V55 verification basis: whc.unesco.org is blocked by the environment egress proxy; the inscription year and list reference number are stated from established record and must be confirmed.