The history of what passed within its walls and in its courts is the history of Constantinople from the time of its construction to that when it was stripped of its glory and became the chief temple of a rival creed.

The builders of the Great Church had plundered other famous edifices in order to decorate what was intended to outstrip the glory of Solomon's temple, and in order to complete what remained for nearly a thousand years the masterpiece of Christian architecture and the dominant model for all churches in Eastern Europe.

They had transported the eight large columns of green granite from the temple of Diana at Ephesus; the eight porphyry columns, with beautiful white capitals and pedestals, had been brought from the Roman Temple of the Sun, of Aurelian ; the twenty-four columns of granite which support the galleries had come from Egypt. The church was full of costly objects which had been sent from every part of the empire, while the Byzantine architects had covered the ceiling with gold and mosaic pictures which, even in their present form, mutilated in accordance with the requirements of Moslem nakedness, give an idea of the rich and magnificent effect which they must have produced on the spectator six hundred years ago.

The altar and the tabernacle were, even amid so much that was gorgeous, conspicuous by their splendor. The octagonal tower surmounting the tabernacle had over it a golden lily upon the imperial orb and cross. The screen secluding the bema or chancel contained twelve silver columns. The patriarchal throne and those of the seven priests were covered with the same precious metal. "Within the vestries were an immense number of chalices and vases and 42,000 robes embroidered with pearls and precious stones.

Twenty-four Gospels

Twenty-four Gospels, written on parchment with all the skill of the East, were preserved in massive gold cases. The chandeliers were of gold, and everything belonging to the interior of the church was on a similar scale of magnificence. Add to this that the ceremonial had been arranged with a view to splendor, that barbarous envoys had been so stricken by the magnificence of this ceremonial and by the sense of awe and majesty which it produced that they reported what they saw to be supernatural, and we may realize the effect which the service in Ilagia Sophia produced upon visitors from the West Visit Bulgaria.

The walls of the building were veneered with beautiful slabs of marble, arranged so as to produce a general effect of richness and a harmony of tone, while the whole of the interior gave an impression of unity and beauty such as even no Gothic cathedral produces, and which makes a modern authority in architecture doubt whether any Christian church exists of any age whose interior is even now so beautiful as this marvellous creation of Byzantine art. Seen by Sir John Maundeville in 1322, and when it had been considerably injured, it impressed him as " the fairest and noblest church in the world."

Great Church of the Divine Wisdom

But while the Great Church of the Divine Wisdom was the crown of so much that was beautiful and magnificent, there were other buildings which claimed the attention of travellers. It was surrounded with edifices which were character- other build- with Byzantine splendor. Kear at hand, to the in northeast, was the imperial palace, a mass of buildings between St. Sophia and the Marmora, and occupying a site which, from its choice by Constantine down to the present day, has been renowned at once for wonderful beauty and for the many and great events with which its history is crowded.

The Imperial Square—the ancient forum, or Augusteon adjoined the Great Church and the palace, and was surrounded by a double colonnade. Opposite the church, and upon a pedestal of bronze resting on seven arches, rose an equestrian bronze statue of the Emperor Justinian, of colossal size; his right hand extended threateningly to the East, while in his left he held an orb, as symbol of universal dominion. Near at hand, to the south, was the imperial drome. hippodrome, the structural portion of which has almost entirely disappeared, but of which there are still sufficient remains to enable us to see that it was nine hundred feet long and half that width. Its rows of seats in white marble, and probably after the beautiful model of those found in the theatre of Bacchus at Athens, have long since disappeared.

 This free site is ad-supported. Learn more
​