The Hagia Sophia
Procopius, De Aedificiis (Buildings)
“[The Church] is distinguished by
indescribable beauty, excelling both in
its size, and in the harmony of its
measures, having no part excessive
and none deficient…”
The Hagia Sophia dwarfs all surrounding
buildings and is truly a magnificent building,
unlike anything at the time. [Hamish]
“
• “The church is singularly full of light
and sunshine; you would declare
that the place is not lighted by the
sun from without, but that the rays
are produced within itself, such an
abundance of light is poured into
this church...”
The fascinating design of the Hagia Sophia allows light to shine
through constantly. It has far more windows than the vast
majority of churches, which is one of the things that makes it so
unique. The dome of the church has often been said to appear
as if it is floating on a ring of light (due to the ring of 40
windows it rests on). [Georgina]
“A spherical-shaped dome standing upon this circle makes it exceedingly beautiful; from the lightness of the building, it
does not appear to rest upon a solid foundation, but to cover the place beneath as though it were suspended from heaven by
the fabled golden chain.”
• The dome
seems as if it
is floating
due to all the
light
streaming in
creating the
illusion of
etherealism.
[Hamish]
The dome of Hagia Sophia
is said to be floating on
light.
The windows of the dome
give the vision that the
dome is not attached to
the church, but is in fact
being held aloft. [Hannah]
“The church is singularly full of light
and sunshine; you would declare
that the place is not lighted by the
sun from without but that the rays
are produced from within itself, such
an abundance of light is poured into
this church”
The Hagia Sophia includes numerous
openings to admit light into the
building, which not only serve to
illuminate the space, something
which would have been relatively
unprecedented in a building of its
size at the time, but also symbolically
references the divine light of heaven,
which procopius says comes “from
within itself”, the seat of divine
power on earth. The light from
within is also true in a more literal
sense; the entire ceiling of the
church (the metaphorical “dome of
heaven”) is covered in gilded
mosaics, which “glow” with reflected
sunlight. [John]
“The church is singularly full of light and sunshine; you would declare that the place is
not lighted by the sun from without, but that the rays are produced within itself, such an
abundance of light is poured into this church...”
Light has always been used to symbolise the purity of an object/person. As
opposed to darkness which has many negative connotations surrounding it. By
continuously referring back to how light the church Procopius is stating how pure
and Holy the building must be and that it gives of an aura of purity. Hence the
statement, “...you declare that the place is not lighted by the sun... But that the
rays are produced within itself...” It radiates “light” in the same way a halo of an
angel might. Angels being purity in essence. [Emilie]
• “A spherical-shaped dome standing
upon this circle makes it exceedingly
beautiful; from the lightness of the
building, it does not appear to rest
upon a solid foundation, but to cover
the place beneath as though it were
suspended from heaven by the
fabled golden chain.”
The central dome of the church
has a diameter of 31 meters and is
supported by four pendentives.
When the building is penetrated
by sunlight through the numerous
arches that surround thåe base of
the dome, it provides the illusion
that the dome is weightless and is
floating, rather than supported by
the pendentives. In this instance
the arches appear to be one large
circular ‘golden chain’.
[Jackson]
Pendentive
Anthemius found himself in a
geometric fix. How would he
build a circular dome atop a
square base? Anthemius
arrived at a revolutionary
solution. He built four
massive columns at the
corner of each square. On
top of the columns, he built
four arches. He then filled
the spaces between the
arches with masonry to
create curved triangular
shapes called pendentives.
The pendentives and the
tops of the arches combine
to form a strong base for the
dome. [Ismail]
Design:
The dome in the Hagia Sophia is one of the central, eyecatching features.
One hundred and eighty feet in diameter, the axis of the
church is located in the dome. It rests above a circle of 40
light-filled windows, which has been attributed to the
‘floating’ look of the dome. In Procopius’ time, the top of the
interior of the dome was covered with a large mosaic of
Christ, called the ‘Pantocrator’, which would have contributed
to the awe-inspiring feel. [Georgina]
• “Moreover it is impossible
accurately to describe the gold, and
silver, and gems, presented by the
Emperor Justinian…”
Procopius is saying that it is
impossible to describe the
amount and extravagance of
jewels, gold, silver, mosaics and
stained glass windows within the
building. Justinian obviously
spared no expense.
“Moreover it is
impossible acurately to
describe the gold, and
silver and gems,
presented by the
Emperor Justinian...”
Architecture accomplishments
The architects chosen by Emperor for the construction
of the Hagia Sophia were Isidore of Miletus (a
professor of geometry and mechanics) and
Anthemius of Tralles (a physicist and mathematician).
Material from all over the empire was brought to
conributie to the church, the most notable of which
are Hellenistic columns from the Temple of Artemis,
green marble from Thessaly, black stone from the
Bosporus region and yellow stone from Syria. [Myra]
• While it was a Christian church, The Hagia was decorated with many
golden mosaics often depicting religious scenes.
• There were precisely cut pieces of white marble set against black marble
in patterns of flowers and birds. Many decorations were added in later
centuries. Christ was added to the central dome and many other figures
too.
• However, many were covered up with plaster because of Islam’s ban on
representational figures. [Nic]