Hagia Sophia

The monumental church of Hagia Sophia, or holy Wİsdom, built on the direct order of the Emperor Justinian in only five years, was inaugurated and consecrated on 27th december 537. For over 900 years, until the fall of constantinople in 1453, it seved as the most prestigious building of the Byzantine empire and the centre of Orthodox Christianity, and was known as the Magale Ekklesia (great church). For almost 500 years thereafter it was the gem of the muslim world and the Ottoman Empire, and was used as the Cami-i Kebir (grand mosque) of the sultans.