Abstract:

Hagia Sophia is situated in the center of the old city of Istanbul chosen as one of the world heritage sites in 1985. It has been restored and changed by many interventions due to the earthquakes through centuries. Oldest parts of the existing structure of Hagia Sophia remained from the 6th century building of architects Anthemios from Tralles and Isidoros from Miletus 532-537 . The building has a monumental dome of 33m in diameter and 56m in height creating an impressive interior space extended longitudinally by two semidomes and decorated with mosaics, frescoes and marble. It was converted into a mosque after 1453 and serves as a museum since 1935. The conservation work is focused on the decoration programme of the main dome with 40 ribs including mosaics, Ottoman calligraphy at the center and Seraphims on the pendentives. This study explains the steps of the surface conservation work carried out between 1993-2009 on the mentioned areas belonging to 6th, 10th and 14th centuries with remains of later implementations of 19th century by Fossati and interventions of 20th century.

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