Hagia Sophia
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Hagia Sophia, officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, is a mosque, a former church, and a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively erected on the site by the Eastern Roman Empire, it was completed in 537 AD. The site was an Chalcedonian church from 360 AD to 1054, an Orthodox church following the Great Schism of 1054, and a Catholic church following the Fourth Crusade. It was reclaimed in 1261 and remained Eastern Orthodox until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. It served as a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum. In 2020, the site once again became a mosque.
Hagia Sophia Church was built in 537 AD, with minarets added in the 15th–16th centuries when it became a mosque.
Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey, ca. 1897.
View of the dome interior
Theodosian capital for a column, one of the few remains of the church of Theodosius II
Holy Wisdom
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Holy Wisdom is a concept in Christian theology.
Full-page illustration of Sapientia (Wisdom) of the 12th century. Wisdom is the central figure, between the figures of Christ (above), Zechariah, father of John the Baptist and the patriarch Jacob (below), David and Abraham, Malachi and Balaam, Isaiah, and Daniel (to the left and right, respectively)
Icon of Divine Wisdom София Премудрость Божия) from St George Church in Vologda (16th century)
Reconstruction of the Hagia Sophia basilica of Constantinople
Late gothic wooden sculpture of saints Sophia, Faith, Hope and Charity (Eschau, 1470)