Hagia Sophia was a cathedral for nearly 1,000 years before being converted into a mosque in 1453 and a museum in 1935. Diyanet said in a statement on Tuesday that the Christian icons in Hagia ...

Completed in 537 CE, Hagia Sophia was the religious and cultural center of the Byzantine Empire and, for a time, the largest Christian cathedral in the world. With its innovative pendentive dome ...

"We regret the decision of the Turkish Republic’s leadership on turning Hagia Sophia cathedral-museum into a mosque and resuming Muslim religious services there. The ruling on the museum status ...

Across continents, sacred sites like the venerable Hagia Sophia and the striking Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba have been repurposed to echo the prevailing winds of religious, political and ...

In 2020, the building once again became a working mosque. Once the biggest cathedral in the world, the Hagia Sophia is considered the magnum opus of Byzantine architecture. Visitors say it is a ...

A magnet for tourists worldwide, the Hagia Sophia was first constructed 1,500 years ago as a cathedral in the Christian Byzantine Empire and it was there they crowned their emperors. It was ...

Apart from that, Putin and Mitsotakis "focused on the change of the status of Hagia Sophia cathedral in Istanbul." "[They] emphasized the unmatched cultural, historic and religious significance of ...

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Visiting the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque are essential on ... Visiting a mosque is not unlike visiting a cathedral, a synagogue, or any other place of worship. As long as you’re respectful ...

at the back of the cathedral. It is a typical Orthodox Christian icon, also present in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The ...

Sultan Ahmed I was determined to build a mosque that rivaled the nearby Hagia Sophia, and most would agree that he accomplished this task or, at least, came close. Since the early 1600s ...