The Hagia Sophia, located in Istanbul, Turkey, is a major historical and artistic monument famous for having been used by different religions. The UNESCO World Heritage Site was originally ...

The current Hagia Sophia was built in the 6th century when Constantinople — as Istanbul was then called — was the heart of the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire that emerged as Ancient Rome ...

Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics" From a historical perspective, the conversion of religiously and politically charged buildings such as Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is no new phenomenon ...

Built nearly 1,500 years ago, Hagia Sophia was the first cathedral in the Roman Empire. After a thousand years, the Ottomans converted the structure into a mosque following the sack of Constantinople.

Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia has reopened for Friday prayers for the first time since a decision was made to turn it back into a mosque after more than 80 years as a museum.

Turkey has begun a new phase in sweeping restorations of the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, focusing on preserving the monument’s historic domes from the threat of earthquakes.

Thousands of people attended prayers at Istanbul's historic Hagia Sophia on Friday, completing the famous building's conversion from a secular space into a Muslim house of worship. It had been a ...

The decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia – a former cathedral that was turned into a mosque after Istanbul's conquest by the Ottoman Empire and had served as a museum for 86 years ...

Turkey has begun a new phase in sweeping restorations of the nearly 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, focusing on preserving the monument's historic domes from the threat of earthquakes.