AYASOFYA (Hagia Sophia) - İSTANBUL

Hagia Sophia is named according to the Orthodox sect, one of the three attributes of God “Sacred wisdom”is taken from.
The first two buildings were destroyed by the invasions. Today 1. By Justinian M. it was built in 527 and opened to worship as a church.

When Fatih Sultan Mehmet conquered Istanbul in 1453, the Church was converted into a mosque. Fatih Sultan Mehmet, who gave a special importance to the Church in a ruined situation, restored the Hagia Sophia and converted it into a mosque, but did not touch its name. The first Minaret was in the time of Fatih Sultan Mehmet II and the second was in the time of Sultan II. Beyazid was built in time.

With the conversion of the church into a mosque, some of the mosaics containing the human figure were plastered with a fine plaster. The mosaics that do not contain human figures have not been touched. As a result of this tolerant behavior of Fatih Sultan Mehmet, mosaics have been preserved until today.

Republic of Turkey founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's orders restoration done in 1930 uncovered mosaics and fine plaster removed and opened as a museum.