The nearby Church of Hagia Eirene, though located in the First Courtyard, is not considered a part of the old Byzantine acropolis.

Isidore of Miletus was a renowned scientist and mathematician before Emperor Justinian I hired him, “ Isidorus taught stereometry and physics at the universities, first of Alexandria then of Constantinople, and wrote a commentary on an older treatise on vaulting .” Emperor Justinian I appointed his architects to rebuild the Hagia Sophia following his victory over protesters within the capital city of his Roman Empire, Constantinople.

Several of the first mosques in the Ottoman Empire, such as the Hagia Sophia in present-day Istanbul, were originally churches or cathedrals in the Byzantine Empire.

The Selimiye Mosque in the city of Edirne, Turkey, was the first structure built by the Ottomans which had a larger dome than that of the Hagia Sophia.

The first experimentation with pendentives were made in Roman dome construction beginning in the 2nd – 3rd century AD, while full development of the form was achieved in the 6th century Eastern Roman Hagia Sophia at Constantinople.

Though there is some architectural and archaeological evidence of early templa, the first and most detailed description of a templon comes from a poem by Paul the Silentiary, describing Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

After the ascendency of Christianity in the Roman Empire, the consular processions in Constantinople retained their religious character, now proceeding to Hagia Sophia, where prayers and offerings were made ; but in Rome, where Christianity was not so widely spread among the upper classes, at first the tendency was to convert the procession into a purely civil function, omitting the pagan rites and prayers, without substituting Christian ones Only after Theodosius did the processions become a religious event, repeat with icons, crosses, and banners.

Immediately after the conquest, groups of Islamic scholars transformed the major churches of Hagia Sophia and the Pantocrator ( today the Zeyrek Mosque ) into mosques, but the Fatih Mosque and its surrounding complex was the first purpose-built Islamic seminary within the city walls.

Romanos soon went to Constantinople, where he became a deacon of the Hagia Sophia, and where he is said to have first developed his gift for hymn-writing.

He then took refuge in the church of Hagia Sophia and from there appealed to the populace.

Isaac killed Hagiochristophorites and took refuge in the church of Hagia Sophia.

Anthemius of Tralles ( c. 474 – before 558 ; ) was a Greek professor of Geometry in Constantinople ( present-day Istanbul in Turkey ) and architect, who collaborated with Isidore of Miletus to build the church of Hagia Sophia by the order of Justinian I. Anthemius came from an educated family, one of five sons of Stephanus of Tralles, a physician.

As an architect he is best known for replacing the old church of Hagia Sophia at Constantinople in 532 ; his daring plans for the church strikingly displayed his knowledge.

* 563 – The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.

The council confirmed the Nicene Creed and dealt with other matters such as the Arian controversy as it met in the church of Hagia Irene from May to July 381.

Isidore of Miletus was one of the two main Byzantine Greek architects ( Anthemius of Tralles was the other ) that Emperor Justinian I commissioned to design the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople from 532-537A. D.

Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles originally planned on a main hall of the Hagia Sophia that measured 230 feet by 250 feet, making it the largest church in Constantinople, but the original dome was nearly 20 feet lower than it was constructed, “ Justinian suppressed these riots and took the opportunity of marking his victory by erecting in 532-7 the new Hagia Sophia, one of the largest, most lavish, and most expensive buildings of all time .” Although Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles were not formally educated in architecture, they were scientists that could organize the logistics of drawing thousands of laborers and unprecedented loads of rare raw materials from around the Roman Empire to create the Hagia Sophia for Emperor Justinian I.

He visited the great church of Hagia Sophia and spoke with a Christian Orthodox priest about his travels in the city of Jerusalem.

His reign also marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture, and his building program yielded such masterpieces as the church of Hagia Sophia, which was to be the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity for many centuries.

Most notably, he had the Hagia Sophia, originally a basilica style church that had been burnt down during the Nika riots, splendidly rebuilt according to a completely different ground plan, under the architectural supervision of Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles.

The relationship of the plan and of the architectural decoration of Basilica B with Hagia Sophia and Saint Irene in Constantinople accorded a privileged place to this church in the history of early Christian art.

He is forced to seek sanctuary in the church of Hagia Sophia to escape the wrath of the people.

Isaac killed Hagiochristophorites and took refuge in the church of Hagia Sophia.

The church of Hagia Sophia was built by Justinian I in the middle of the city in the 6th century ( modelled after the larger Hagia Sophia in Constantinople ), and it was there that the Second Council of Nicaea met in 787 to discuss the issues of iconography.

Zeno succeeded in bribing Armatus too, promising to confirm his rank of magister militum praesentalis for life and promoting his son ( also called Basiliscus ) to the rank of Caesar ; Armatus ' army did not intercept Zeno's troops marching on Constantinople, and the lack of Theodoric Strabo and his army decided the fate of Basiliscus, who fled with his family in the church of Hagia Sophia.

He was also the author of rhetorical exercises on philosophical themes ; of a Quadrivium ( arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy ), valuable for the history of music and astronomy in the Middle Ages ; a general sketch of Aristotelian philosophy ; a paraphrase of the speeches and letters of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite ; poems, including an autobiography ; and a description of the square of the Augustaeum, and the column erected by Justinian in the church of Hagia Sophia to commemorate his victories over the Persians.

After returning to Constantinople, Basiliscus hid in the church of Hagia Sophia to escape the wrath of the people and the revenge of the Emperor.

It was to Gennadius that the angry people went after seeing the Uniate services in the great church of Hagia Sophia.

According to the Chronicon Paschale, the point of the lance, which had been broken off, was given in the same year to Nicetas, who took it to Constantinople and deposited it in the church of Hagia Sophia, and later to the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos.

This tradition continued unabated after the adoption of Christianity in the Byzantine ( East Roman ) religious and secular architecture, culminating in the revolutionary pendentive dome of the 6th century church Hagia Sophia.

He commissioned his favourite architect Konstantin Thon to create a new design, taking as his model Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Turkey.

Near his palace, the king commissioned an Arian cathedral, now called the Church of Spirito Santo, but originally named Hagia Anastasis ( Holy Resurrection ).

) The mosques that were built after the conquest of Constantinople ( Istanbul ) by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, and influenced by the design of the 6th century Byzantine basilica of Hagia Sophia, had increasingly elevated and large central domes, which create a vertical emphasis that is intended to be more overwhelming ; in order to convey the divine power of Allah, the majesty of the Ottoman Sultan, and the governmental authority of the Ottoman State.

Visitors and merchants were especially struck by the beautiful monasteries and churches of the city, in particular, Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom: A Russian 14th-century traveler, Stephen of Novgorod, wrote, " As for St Sophia, the human mind can neither tell it nor make description of it.

By the 9th century, eunuch singers were well-known ( not least in the choir of Hagia Sophia ), and remained so until the sack of Constantinople by the Western forces of the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

The Hagia Sophia architects innovatively combined the longitudinal structure of a Roman basilica and the central plan of a drum-supported dome, in order to withstand the high magnitude earthquakes of the Marmara Region, “ However, in May 558, little more than 20 years after the Church ’ s dedication, following the earthquakes of August 553 and December 557, parts of the central dome and its supporting structure system collapsed .” The Hagia Sophia was repeatedly cracked by earthquakes and was quickly repaired.

He had two large alabaster urns transported from Pergamon and placed on two sides of the nave in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and a large wax candle dressed in tin which was donated by him to the Rila monastery in Bulgaria is on display in the monastery museum.

The marriage of Constantine and Theodote was celebrated in 795, although not by the patriarch, as was normal, but by a certain Joseph, a priest of Hagia Sophia.

In 858, Bardas found himself opposed by the then Patriarch Ignatios, who refused to admit him into Hagia Sophia, since it was believed that he was having an affair with his widowed daughter-in-law, Eudoxia Ingerina.

Theophanes the Confessor records that Leo IV died as a result of a fever brought on from the precious stones in a crown taken from the Hagia Sophia ; some scholars have indicated that upon his accession to the throne Leo was already sick, while others believe Leo was murdered by persons unknown, though Irene is suspected.

The Hagia Triada Mycenaean Greece | Mycenaean sarcophagus, 14th century BCE, depicting the earliest lyre with seven strings, held by a man with long robe, third from the left.

While most of the Eastern bishops accepted the letter, Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople refused, with the support of the population of the city, clearly showing his disdain towards Basiliscus by draping the icons in Hagia Sophia in black.

The cupola is adorned by an impressive gold mosaic, the second largest of its kind after the one in the Hagia Sophia.