Hagia Sophia - Turkey

If you go through the gardens, you will find the Hagia Sophia basilica with its ochre walls, transformed into a museum in 1934 by Ataturk. If this renowned Byzantine church was built by Constantine in 337 AC, it is Emperor Justinian that gave it all the splendour to the building by ordering all the best architects of the moment to re-build the basilica following multiple fires. Precious materials were brought in from across the empire, and during the inauguration of the new Hagia Sophia in 537, the emperor would have said: "I have beaten you, Solomon!"

Others, more mystical, still whisper today that the building is the work of god. In 1453, Hagia Sophia was transformed into a mosque by Mehmet II. The minarets were added, a Mirhab facing Mecca and the superb sculpted marble tribune of the Muezzin. The Ottoman sultans preserved the passed cultures, which makes of Hagia Sophia an exceptional place where Christian Art meets Islamic Art today.

  The historical heart

A town on the Spice Trade Road