Aja Sofija Editorial Image

Hagia Sophia, also called Saint Sophia (Latin) and Church of Divine Wisdom, is one of the most monumental religious monuments, not only in Istanbul, but in the whole world. This church, whose beauty and size take your breath away, was built in the Byzantine style in the 6th century AD (532 - 537 AD), under the watchful eye of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. From its original purpose, a Christian church, over the centuries Hagia Sophia changed its purpose - it was turned into a mosque, a museum, and then it became a mosque again.Hagia Sophia is one of the few cultural monuments that equally reflects the influence of the East and the West, so on its walls you can see minarets and inscriptions of Islam, as well as lavish Christian mosaics. It was added to the UNESCO list of world heritage monuments in 1985.