ISTANBUL (RNS) — Hundreds of worshippers filled the narrow streets of Istanbul’s Fatih district on Friday to hear the sounds ...

Built 1,500 years ago as an Orthodox Christian cathedral, Hagia Sophia ... change is coming to Hagia Sophia, which has endured since the 6th century, outlasting the Byzantine empire and the ...

Once the biggest cathedral in the world, the Hagia Sophia is considered the magnum opus of Byzantine architecture. Visitors say it is a must-see when in Istanbul and recommend taking a guided tour ...

Hagia Sophia's complex history began almost 1,500 years ago, when Byzantine emperor Justinian built the huge church in the year 537. In 1453, in a devastating blow to the Byzantines, Ottoman ...

Archaeologists discovered a mysterious network of tunnels and rooms with mosaics and marble beneath the 1,500-year-old Church ...

The preservation of Byzantine mosaics in Istanbul ... Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion said. Hagia Sophia is the former Greek Orthodox Christian ...

Hagia Sophia was not exempt. Pillagers made their way to the ... Another victim of Turkey’s intolerance of churches, the Agios Theodoros Byzantine Church in Istanbul, was first converted into a mosque ...

Built in the 530s in Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire ... The transformation of the Greek Hagia Sophia Cathedral into the Turkish Ayasofya Mosque did not take place gently.

Hagia Sophia was a cathedral for nearly 1,000 years before being converted into a mosque in 1453 and a museum in 1935. Diyanet said in a statement on Tuesday that the Christian icons in Hagia ...

Some Local Orthodox Churches, including the Russian Church, voiced regret over the move. For his part, Pope Francis said he was very saddened by Turkey’s decision. Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine ...

Almost a century before this, the iconoclastic controversy had once more shaken the foundations of both Church and State in the Byzantine empire ... of icons was solemnly proclaimed at the Hagia ...

Not far from the Blue Mosque is the equally impressive Hagia Sophia. Originally built as a church where rulers of ... the most important monuments of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.