byzantine.istanbul.part.1

Happy Christmas day, I start out today with Byzantine Istanbul and first sight is Hagia Sophia. I am not going to bored you with the history and much of the things that you can read up from Internet. I am just going to jot down my impressions about Byzantine element in Istanbul.

Hagia Sophia as presently stands in its place is actually the third church on the same location, it is a very elegant monument in Byzantine architecture, it stands stunning in the old town of Istanbul – Sultanamet area. Although its rival blue mosque is ever dominantly shadowing but the elegance and graceful Hagia Sophia is unbeatable by the size of its rival.

The exterior of the church should be even more beautiful if the Ottoman sultans have not patched up with extension... There are some of the remains from second church lying on the compound and the current building is the third church.

The interior of the church is stunning and breathtaking; despite of the beautiful design of the original Byzantine church, the later adds-on are actually eye sole and depleted awesomeness of the original design. The Ottoman kingdom has added on too many objects and extension to a otherwise awesomely beautiful church.

The path way to upper gallery

The Loge of the Empress is located in the centre of the upper enclosure, or gallery, of the Hagia Sophia. From there the empress and the court-ladies would watch the proceedings down below.

The famous mosaic Virgin and Child is situated in a high location on the half dome survived

Comnenus mosaic (top) and Empress Zoe mosaics (bottom)