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Little Hagia Sophia

Little Hagia Sophia

Isidorus of Miletus & Anthemius of Tralles

Photo: fusion-of-horizons · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Istanbul, Turkey
Client / Owner
Justinian
Year
Completed 536
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual

Justinian reportedly vowed to build a church to Saints Sergius and Bacchus after they vouched for him. Isidorus of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles were long believed to have designed it as a rehearsal for Hagia Sophia, a view the article says is largely discredited. The infobox gives groundbreaking in 527 or 532 and completion in 536, and the text says scholars disagree, some favoring the mid-520s and others 532 to 536.

The plan is an octagon inscribed in an irregular quadrilateral, with a sixteen-compartment dome on eight polygonal pillars. The walls are brick in thick mortar beds, and the columns are verd antique and red Synnadic marble. A Greek inscription of twelve hexameters honors Justinian, Theodora and Saint Sergius.

Between 1506 and 1513 Hüseyin Ağa converted it into a mosque. A restoration ended in September 2006. The article gives no dimensions or hours.

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