Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque

Commissioned by Emperor Justinian, consecrated as the Hagia Sophia (Church of Divine Wisdom) in 537, converted to a mosque by Sultan Mehmet II (Mehmet the Conqueror) in 1453, declared a museum by Atatürk in 1935, and reconverted into a working mosque in 2020; the Aya Sofya’s changing status mirrors the history of İstanbul, tracking it through its period as Constantinople, capital of first the Byzantine, then Ottoman empires, up to the modern era when this sprawling metropolis remains central to Turkey’s story.