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The Byzantine Empire, having outlived the Roman Empire, was a major part of world history, especially in religious history. While the Romans and Greeks had originally been polytheistic societies, the Byzantines looked to the Christian faith and monotheistic ways, pioneering Christianity for the world. In need of a place of worship, they turned to the Pantheon in the sixth century which was located in New Rome, Constantinople. The Pantheon became the Church of Hagia Sophia, and it was only dedicated to the one God of the Christian faith. It became a place of great renowned, and was a very unifying structure for East and Western Europe (Kinross 14).

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The multitude of changes and periods of evolution for the Hagia Sophia began with the first fire in the year 404. Saint John Chrysostom was the Patriarch of Constantinople, and he preached about the immorality of the lives the imperial court lived. In doing so, he was exiled from the Byzantine Empire. He did not leave quietly though, and a band of his followers rioted to the point of eventual arson. The full dome of the Hagia Sophia was destroyed, but the whole cathedral was not. It was restored and new additions were added (Kinross 26).

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After the destruction of the Nika Revolt to the church, Justinian built a new and greater church in 415. Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus designed the beautiful structure to what is the basis of today's building. While Constantine the Great's original church had a reach across the region, it did not grow to have quite the reach that Justinian's newly rebuilt church had throughout the world as a symbol of the power and value of religion the imperial court of the Byzantines (Sullivan 34).

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532 Political Unrest = Fire in the Hole 2.0 

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532 Political Unrest = Fire in the Hole 2.0 

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While Justinian the Great was the ruler of the Byzantine, the people of the empire revolted in the Nika Riots. During the Ides of January in 532, the political parties of the empire came together under the pretense of unhappiness with Justinian's rule. They felt that the government was corrupted, and they were angry with the increase of taxes, therefore causing their destructive actions. Rebelling, they began a period of violence in Constantinople, during which they set fire to the Hagia Sophia. While it burned down along with the other political buildings they destroyed, Justinian tried to save face by speaking to the people. While he was not extremely effective, his wife Theodora aided him, and the mob was put to rest. Justinian still ruled the Byzantine, and he had great plans of rejuvenation for the Hagia Sophia (Kinross 27).

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In December 537, Hagia Sophia was officially devoted to preserving Holy Wisdom (Sullivan 34).

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1204 Conversion to a Roman Catholic Cathedral

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1204 Conversion to a Roman Catholic Cathedral

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Transitioning from an Eastern Christian Church to a Roman Catholic Church, and then back again, the Hagia of Sophia was busy. The first change resulted because of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, and Hagia Sophia, which had been East Christian for a number of years, became Roman Catholic (Sullivan 34).

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1261 Conversion to East Christian Cathedral

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1261 Conversion to East Christian Cathedral

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The Hagia Sophia was converted to an East Christian cathedral when the Byzantines took Constantinople back in 1261 (Sullivan 34).

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The siege of Constantinople began on February 6th 1453 CE when the Byzantines refused to peacefully surrender. It ultimately led to the Ottoman control of Constantinople and the Hagia Sophia (Khokhar).

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May 1453 Fall of Constantinople and Conversion to Islam 

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May 1453 Fall of Constantinople and Conversion to Islam 

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On May 29th 1453, Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans, and they took the city raiding it for three days. When they had finished sacking it, Mehmed II voyaged through the city to the Hagia Sophia claiming it as a mosque instead of a Christian church. Hagia Sophia was a hub for Islamic culture for the next few centuries (Khokhar).

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Hagia Sophia's time as a mosque was coming to an end when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's first president, declared the Hagia Sophia a museum on November 24th 1934 (Sullivan 34).

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1935 Hagia Sophia Officially Becomes a Museum 

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1935 Hagia Sophia Officially Becomes a Museum 

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A year later, in 1935, the Hagia Sophia started allowing entry as an official museum that preserved both the Christian and Islamic faiths rooted in the history of the building (Sullivan 34).

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1985 Hagia Sophia Inducted as A World Heritage

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1985 Hagia Sophia Inducted as A World Heritage

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The World Heritage List is a high honor that a building can receive, and the Hagia Sophia gained a place on this list because it met 4 pieces of criteria: it's recognized as a triumph of the human race, it's a structure with immense cultural, architectural, technological, and monumental elements, it's a structure that pays tribute to a past civilization, and a structure that is exceptionally built representing the time in which it thrived. Because the Hagia Sophia meets this criteria, it was inducted in 1985 to the World Heritage List ("Historic Areas").

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July 2020 Hagia Sophia is Back to Mosque Status

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July 2020 Hagia Sophia is Back to Mosque Status

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While the mosque had previously become a museum, it did not prolong as a museum for more than 100 years, and became a mosque once again in 2020. The Turkey Directorate of Religious Affairs, an administrative government group in Turkey made this decision, and while the building may change, we don't quite know the extent of it yet (Sullivan 34).