The Two Mosques at Sultanahmet Square
The Hagia Sophia that we are seeing today is actually the third church of this name to stand on Sultanahmet Square. UNESCO have funded its conservation and it is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This is the history of Hagia Sophia or Ayasofya in Turkish, one of the most visited historical monuments in the world. Hagia Sophia was one of the largest Byzantine church in Constantinople, which is Istanbul, in modern day Turkiye. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 it was converted to a Mosque. In 1934, it was declared a museum by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founding father of the Republic of Turkiye. On July 24, 2020, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkiye opened it for worship as a mosque, without prior discussion with UNESCO , and Ottoman architectural elements were added. The conversion from a museum to mosque generated dismay among Christians and architectural conservators . Its neighbour, Greece is an overwhelmingl...