Ancient Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, was located on the north-west of the present Turkey. It was captured by Turks of the Ottoman Empire that transformed it into Istanbul. Modern Istanbul renowned for two beautiful mosques towered up the sea. Hagia Sophia is more ancient of them. "Hagia" means "saint" translated from Greek. It was not built as a mosque.
The most beautiful church of the Byzantine Empire was built to revive the glory of Rome. Originally on the place where later built Hagia Sophia was a small temple. It burned down in 404, restored in 416 and destroyed again during the rebellion "Nika." People came out against high taxes. This revolt was extremely dangerous for Justinian. There was a rebellion against the authority of the Emperor.
All Roman emperors had one thing in common. They were aimed to leave their mark in the architecture of the city. Justinian had the same as well. Thus, the emperor Justinian gave the order to start building of the new cathedral as soon as possible. Commenced scale construction. It was the great method to prevail new riots because the huge amount of unemployed people was involved in the construction.
Main "curators" of the project were mathematician Anthemius of Tralles and physicist Isidorus of Miletus. They were not classic architects with designing and building experience, but started work immediately. They had to build the greatest temple of Byzantium in just 5 years. The new project combined the Roman and Syrian architectural concepts of public buildings. It was the greatest building of those times, with previously unseen architectural techniques.
They designed a church with the dome of incredible size. The height of the dome was 56 meters and the diameter of 31 meters. They needed to use very light materials to build such dome and save it from collapse. Previous builders used for such purposes lightweight concrete - pozzolana. It used in the constructions of the ancient Rome such as Pantheon. To create pozzolana they needed volcanic ash. Mixing it with water and lime Italian architects gained strong and lightweight material to create arches and domes. Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus faced with the absence of such material in Constantinople. Moreover, task was complicated by the frequent earthquakes on the location of the future building.
Architects reinforced arch semi-domes on each side. Thus, they are not only able to keep the design as a whole, but also significantly increased the area of the church.
Much in the construction of this temple was unusual, for example, lime is mixed with barley water, and cement added oil. To the top of the board to the throne was "invented" a new material: in the melted gold throwing onyx, topaz, pearls, amethysts, sapphires, rubies - all the most expensive.
The walls and roof were constructed of brick and limestone blocks served as material for the support. Julian spends a lot on furnishing. The church was decorated with gold and marble and silver. The miraculous, weightless effect was reinforced by the light reflecting gold mosaic(Getlein)
Bricks were brought to Constantinople from Rhodes. The chemical composition is significantly different from bricks are used in modern construction. It was made from the clay from Rhodes, and it was lighter than conventional. Masonry is also differing. Mortar holds much more space than bricks.
Everything seemed perfect for Anthemius and Isidorus, but they did not notice mistakes which were made in the calculations. They have jeopardized the entire structure. The upper part of the arches is strongly deformed. As a result, the dome was built in haste. Much later were added to the external columns which reduced horizontal pressure. These strengthening were built already in the ninth century and some of them in the thirteenth.
Despite the fact that the building was constructed as a church in the interior and painting it did not meet the images of saints. Justinian avoided them for unknown reasons. Сonstruction of the cathedral had to be completed as quickly as possible, so builders save time and on the lining of the temple.
Tops of the marble columns could not withstand the weight. The first dome collapsed in 558. (Gardner) This was accomplished through the tragedy of the earthquake that occurred 20 years after the completion of the Hagia Sophia. But the reconstruction of the temple has not passed successfully. In the process of reconstruction of destroyed structures were built of concrete stairs to the external pillars columns. Сollapse was caused not because of the shape of the dome, and from its base.
Base of the dome was made as a cylinder with a large number of windows on the perimeter. During the restoration of the dome, radius has been changed. This dome despite any weather conditions stood about fifteen hundred years.
Constantinople was taken by the Turks in 726. Hagias Sofia in Istanbul, including other churches was subjected to considerable damage. Marble slabs were damaged, replaced by more primitive with cross motifs. In 843, with the completion of the period of iconoclasm interest to images of religious motives resumes. During the restructuring of the temple murals and mosaics were covered. (Adams)
The most important information on which scientists referred were taken from the writings of historian Procopius of Caesarea 20 years after the end of construction. Except him, this process was described by anonymous 300 years after.
Works Cited
Adams, Laurie. A History of Western Art. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.
Getlein, Mark. Living with Art. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art: A Brief History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
