THE FLOATING GOLDEN DOME

We know that the faithful attributed the structural success of Hagia Sophia
to divine intervention. Nothing is more illustrative of the attitude than
descriptions of the dome of Hagia Sophia. Procopius, biographer of the
Emperor Justinian and author of a book on the buildings of Justinian is the
first to assert that the dome hovered over the building by divine
intervention. The windows at the bottom of the dome are closely spaced,
visually asserting that the base of the dome s insubstantial and hardly
touching the building itself, it makes the dome suspended in the air, the
building planners aid more than squeeze the windows together, they also
med the jambs or sides of the windows with gold mosaic. As Sght hits the
gold it bounces around the openings and eats away at the structure and
makes room for the imagination to see a floating dome.
MINARETS
Probably the most obvious addition is the incredible , minarets outside,
these four very tall, thin pencil minarets and domes are what everyone
comes to associate with Ottoman architecture.
They’re the quintessential features of mosque architecture but also of the
Ottoman urban landscape. By pencil minaret, you’re distinguishing them
from the thicker minarets that you see maybe in Egypt.
DAMAGE AND REPAIRS
The building was severely damaged by three quakes durina its early history.
Extensive repairs were required.
Despite the repairs, one assumes that the city saw the survival of the
church, amid city rubble, as yet another indication of divine guardianship of
the church.
Extensive repair and restoration are ongoing in the modern period, we likely
pride ourselves on the ability of modern engineering to compensate for
daring 6th Century building technique. Both ages have their belief systems
and we are understandably certain of the rightness of our modern approach
to the care of the great monument.