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Perfection
Hagia Sophia (537)
Istanbul, Turkey
Church: 537-1435
Mosque: 1435-1931
Closed: 1931-1935
Museum: 1935-Present
Originally commissioned for Christian Emperor Constantine of Constantinople in 326, rebuilt for Emperor Justinian in 537. The Hagia Sophia was the world’s largest cathedral for 1,000, until the completion of a larger one in Seville, Spain. The current dome is the third the building has had, the first crumbled in an earthquake a few decades after the first completion, the second dome snapped in two a couple hundred years later. This place has been ransacked, run-down, built up, used, abandoned, cleaned up, and reopened. It has had its identity decided and changed for it on multiple occasions, and has been a representation of conquest.
