Architecture·Later empires
Hagia Sophia Converted into a Mosque in Istanbul
- Date
- June 1453 CE857 AH573 years ago
- Place
- Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
- People
- Mehmed II
After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II ordered the Hagia Sophia converted into a mosque in 1453. Minarets and a mihrab were added, and the Christian mosaics were covered. The building served as the main imperial mosque for nearly five centuries. In 1934 it was turned into a museum by government decree, and it was reopened for Muslim prayer in 2020.
Why it matters
It remained the principal imperial mosque of the Ottoman state until the early twentieth century.