The
Hagia Sophia was the most important church of the Christian religion for 1000 years. The original great church which was built soon after the founding
of Constantinople in 330 a.d. was destroyed by an earthquake. The foundation of this church was built by the emperor Justinian in
532 but its dome has since been replaced. In its time it was one of the architectural wonders of the world. The name Hagia Sophia is greek for Holy Wisdom and is emblematic of the Eastern Roman Empire (also called the Byzantine Empire and the Greek Empire)
which became dominated by Hellenic culture after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 a.d. The greek name is also a function of the
Hellenic roots of Christianity, the original text of the New Testament is in Attic Greek and the Logos of Socartes and Plato is considered to be a
philosophical antecedent of Christian thought.
The conversion of Hagia Sophia to an Islamic Mosque after the fall of Constantinople to the
Ottoman Turks in 1453 inspired the building of St Peter's basilica in the Vatican. The great dome of St. Peters is the 16th century descendant of the 6th century dome of Hagia Sophia.
There is an interesting analysis of Greek Orthodox iconography which is best represented by the mosaics on the walls of Hagia Sophia and the comparison to western religious art at
Icons.
