Issues:
1. Development of a new architectural form that combines the basilica with the vaulted or domed double shell structure. Challenge--learn new terms
2. Relationship between liturgy and imperial ideology.
The forging of a new relationship between church and state. Challenge--understand the use and meaning of space.
3. Both function and structure of Hagia Sophia can be understood within the context of earlier buildings in Constantinople such as St. John Studios and SS. Sergios and Bakchos.

I. CONSTANTINOPLE. In 330 Constantine the Great established a new capital "New Rome" on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium (Turkey) on the north shore of the Sea of Marmara (near entrance to the Bosphorus Sea). Renamed the city Constantinople, later called Istanbul. The separation of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire under Theodosius, 395.

II. JUSTINIAN AND THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. Portraits of Justinian--San Vitale, Ravenna, apse wall mosaic, 546, and The Barbarini Diptych (Justinian as defender of the faith), ivory, mid sixth century. Expansion of the Empire under able leadership of his military general Belisarius, recorded by his court historian, Procopius. Crowned emperor in 527, d. 563; married Theodora. Nike riots and destruction of the old Hagia Sophia constructed by Constantine and Theodosius.

III. ARCHITECTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), Constantinople. Rebuilding of the new Church of the Holy Wisdom or Hagia Sophia, 532-537. Architects: Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus. Dome collapses in 558, 989, 1346. Converted to mosque in 1453. Secularized in 1953. Note, proconnesian marble, galleries, tympana, dome on pendentives, exedrae, conches, revetments, groin vaults, skeuophylakion (absence of a diaconicon and prothesis). Liturgical furniture includes ambo, solea, bema, chancel, synthronon, and altar. Greater and Lesser Entrances. A centralized basilica.

St. John Studios, Constantinople. (Example of Early Christian Architecture in Constantinople before Justinian) Founded in 463, converted into mosque 1481-1512. Burned 1894, part remains standing. A three-aisled basilica of "stubby" proportions with galleries, possibly without a clerestory, preceded by an atrium. Semicircular apse inside and three sided externally. Church elements include sanctuary, crypt, martyrium, synthronon, ambo and solea.

SS. Sergios and Bakchos, Constantinople. (Example of Byzantine Architecture in Constantinople constructed by Justinian before the Hagia Sophia--a small scale model for the Hagia Sophia?) Constructed between 527-536. Irregular plan due to site between Hormisdas Palace (Justinian's residence before he became emperor) and SS. Peter and Paul (a basilican church constructed by Justinian between 518-19 as a palace church). Only SS. Sergios and Bakchos survives. A double shell structure with octagonal core, exedrae niches at diagonals, pumpkin dome with 16 ribs (alternating flat and curved wedges). Perhaps functioned as a martyrium to be used for the Monophysite population and constructed as a gesture of good will by Justinian under the influence of his wife Theodora.

IV. TEXT.

From Procopius, De aedificiis (Buildings), written 559-60

The Emperor, disregarding all considerations of expense, hastened to begin construction and raised craftsmen from the whole world. It was Anthemius of Tralles, the most learned man in the discipline called engineering, not only of all his contemporaries, but also as compared to those who had lived long before him, that ministered to the Emperor's zeal by regulating the work of the builders and preparing in advance designs of what was going to be built. He had as partner another engineer called Isidore, a native of Miletus, who was intelligent in all respects and worthy to serve the Emperor Justinian....

So the church has been made a spectacle of great beauty, stupendous to those who see it and altogether incredible to those who hear of it.... Its breadth and length have been so fittingly proportioned that it may without impropriety be described as being both very long and extremely broad. And it boast of an ineffable beauty, for it subtly combines its mass with the harmony of its proportions, having neither any excess nor any deficiency, inasmuch as it is more pompous than ordinary (buildings) and considerably more decorous than those which are huge beyond measure, and it abounds exceedingly in gleaming sunlight. You might say that the space is not illuminated by the sun from the outside, but that the radiance is generated within, so great an abundance of light bathes this shrine all round. The face of the church--this would be the part turned towards the rising sun, intended for the celebration of God's mysteries--has been wrought in the following fashion. A construction of masonry rises from the ground, not in a straight line, but gradually drawing back from its sides and receding in the middle, so as to describe a semi-circular shape which is called a half-cylinder by specialists, and this towers to a precipitous height. The extremity of this structure terminates in the fourth part of a sphere, and above it another crescent-shaped form is lifted up by the adjoining parts of the building, wonderful in its beauty yet altogether terrifying by the apparent precariousness of its composition. For it seems somehow not to be raised in a firm manner, but to soar aloft to the peril of those who are there, and yet, it is supported with quite extraordinary firmness and security. On either side of these, columns are placed on the ground, and these, too, do not stand in a straight line, but retreat inward in a half-circle as if making way for one another in a dance, and above them is suspended a crescent-shaped form. Opposite the eastern wall is another one that contains the entrances, and on either side of the latter both the columns and the superstructure stand in a half-circle, in a manner very similar to what has been described. In the middle of the church there rise four man-made eminences which are called piers, two on the north and two on the south, opposite and equal to one another, each pair having between them exactly four columns. The eminences are built to a great height and are composed of big stones, carefully selected and skillfully fitted together by the masons. As you see them, you could suppose them to be precipitous mountain peaks. Upon these are placed four arches so as to form a square, their ends coming together in pairs and made fast at the summit of those piers, while the rest of them rises to an immense height. Two of the arches, namely those facing the rising and the setting sun, are suspended over empty air, while the others have beneath them some kind of structure and rather tall columns. Above the arches the construction rises in a circle, it is through this that the first light of day always smiles. Indeed, I believe it towers above the whole earth, and the structure has gaps at short intervals, being intentionally interrupted so that the openings corresponding to the divisions in the masonry are channels of constant illumination. And since the arches are joined together on a square plan, the intervening construction assumes the form of four triangles. The bottom end of each triangle, being pressed together by the conjunction of he arches, causes the lower angle to be acute, but as it rises it becomes wider by the intervening space and terminates in the arc of a circle, which it supports, and forms the remaining angles at that level. Rising above this circle is an enormous spherical dome which makes the building exceptionally beautiful. It seems not to be founded on solid masonry, but to be suspended from heaven by that golden chain and so cover the space. All of these elements, marvelously fitted together in mid-air suspended from one another and reposing only on the parts adjacent to them, produce a unified and most remarkable harmony in the work, and yet do not allow the spectators to rest their gaze upon any one of them for a length of time, but each detail readily draws and attracts the eye to itself. Thus the vision constantly shifts round, and the beholders are quite unable to select any particular element which they might admire more than all the others. No matter how much they concentrate their attention on this side and that, and examine everything with contracted eyebrows, they are unable to understand the craftsmanship and always depart from there amazed by the perplexing spectacle. So much, then, for this.

It was by means of many devices that the Emperor Justinian and the engineers Anthemius and Isidore gave stability to the church, suspended as it is in mid-air. Most of these are beyond my comprehension and I find it impossible to express them in words, one device only I shall describe here in order to demonstrate the strength of the whole world. It is a follows. The piers which I have just mentioned are not built like ordinary masonry, but in this fashion. Courses of stone have been laid in a four-square shape, they are hard by nature, but worked smooth, and those of them that were intended to form the lateral projections of the piers have been cut at an angle, while the ones that were assigned an intermediary position have been made rectangular. These were joined together not with lime which they call unslaked, not with asphalt, the pride of Semiramis in Babylon, nor with any other similar substance, but with lead poured into the interstices, which has penetrated into all the intervening spaces and having hardened in the joints, binds the stones together. This, then, was built in the above manner, but let us now proceed to the remaining parts of the church.

The entire ceiling has been overlaid with pure gold which combines beauty with ostentation, yet the refulgence from the marble prevails, vying as it does with that of the gold. There are two colonnades (stoai) one on each side, not separated from the church by any structural element, but actually adding to the measure of its width and extending to its whole length, while their height is less than that of the building. They, too, have a vaulted ceiling adorned with gold. One of these colonnades is assigned to men for their devotions, while the other is used by women for the same purpose. However, there is no difference or any distinction between the two, but their very equality and similarity contribute to the beauty and adornment of the church. But who could describe the galleries of the women's part or enumerate the many colonnades and columned courts by means of which the church is encompassed? Who could recount the beauty of the columns and the marbles with which the church is adorned? One might imagine that one has chanced upon a meadow in full bloom. For one would surely marvel at the purple hue of some, the green of others, at those on which the crimson blooms, at those that flash with white, at those, too, which Nature, like a painter, has varied with the most contrasting colors. Whenever one goes to this church to pray, one understands immediately that this work has been fashioned not by human power or skill, but by the influence of God. And so the visitor's mind is lifted up to God and floats aloft, thinking that He cannot be far away, but must love to dwell in this place which He himself has chosen.... And as for the treasure of this church--the (vessels of) gold and silver and precious stones which Emperor Justinian has dedicated here--it is impossible to give an exact account of all of them. I shall allow my readers to form an estimate by means of a single example. That part of the church which is especially sacred and accessible to priests only--it is called the sanctuary--exhibits forty thousand pounds of silver.

So the church of Constantinople, which men are wont to call the Great Church...has been wrought in this fashion by the Emperor Justinian. It was not by money alone that the emperor built it, but with toil of the mind and the other qualities of the soul, as I am about to relate. One of the arches that I have just mentioned namely the one to the east, had already been raised on either side, but had not been completed in the middle, and was still waiting. The piers on top of which the structure was being built, unable to bear the mass that was pressing down on them, somehow or other suddenly started to breakaway and seemed to be on the point of collapsing. So the staff of Anthemius and Isidore, terrified at what had happened and having lost confidence in their skill, referred the matter to the emperor. And the emperor, impelled by I know not what, but, I suppose, by God (since he is not an engineer), immediately commanded them to complete that curve of that arch. "For," he said, "when it is supported by itself, it will no longer need the piers beneath it." If this story were unwitnessed, I am sure it would seem to be a piece of flattery and altogether incredible, but since there exist many witnesses of what happened at that time, we need not be reluctant to tell the rest of the story. So the craftsmen carried out the orders, and the entire arch was securely suspended, thus confirming by experiment the validity of his idea. This, then, was finished in the above manner, but in the case of the other arches, namely those turned toward the south and the north, the following chanced to happen. The so called loroi, swelled out by the masonry of the church, were already in the air, but everything beneath them was suffering under their weight and the columns that are there were shedding little flakes as if being scraped. Once again the engineers became dispirited by what had happened and reported their plight to the emperor. And once again the emperor solved the problem by the following device. He commanded that the extremities of the parts that had suffered, namely what came in contact with the arches, should be immediately removed and inserted much later, as such time when the moisture of the masonry had sufficiently abated. They followed these precepts, and thereafter the structure survived secure. From this work the emperor enjoys a kind of added testimonial.

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