Hagia Sophia restoration to protect 1,500-year-old Unesco ‘masterpiece'
'We are not just responsible for this building but to the entire world public,' Diker said, gesturing at the crowds of visitors kneeled on the plush turquoise carpets or gazing at the murals of feathered seraphim. He pointed up at the gold mosaic and blue mural interior of the main dome, what he describes as one of the many 'unsolved problems' of the Hagia Sophia's design.
The imposing structure, first built in AD537 under the Byzantine (or eastern Roman) empire, is visibly uneven in places, in particular the grand dome, which for hundreds of years has sat perched atop four columns of different dimensions. The entire building is a patchwork of repairs after the collapse of the original dome in an earthquake in 558 plus several of the surrounding half-domes in later tremors.
The Hagia Sophia still bears features from when it was one of the world's grandest cathedrals before its conversion into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest in 1453 of what was then Constantinople.
Transformed into a museum under the Turkish republic in 1935, a Turkish court controversially reclassified it as a mosque five years ago. The decision sparked fierce criticism, including from Unesco, which called the Hagia Sophia 'an architectural masterpiece' and said the decision to reclassify it undermined 'the universal nature of its heritage'.
Diker's role, alongside other architects, engineers and art historians appointed by the Turkish authorities, will be to conduct the most extensive restoration works in years. The team will remove the lead covering the main dome and look for ways to strengthen the fragile joints between the semi-domes and the main cupola in order to prevent earthquake damage.
They will also examine the four supporting pillars and parts of the structure below ground. 'This may be one of the greatest restorations of the current period in Turkey,' Diker said.
Their mission only proved more pressing when last month a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Istanbul, causing buildings across the city to tremble. Diker immediately rushed from his office to peer at the mosque's interior and inspect for damage.
Turkey sits atop two fault lines, making it extremely susceptible to earthquakes, which can prove deadly when combined with infrastructure issues. Two powerful earthquakes that struck the country's south-east in early 2023 killed more than 53,000 people, and destruction covering the size of Germany was blamed on widespread corruption in the construction industry.
Istanbul, a city of 16 million people, densely packed older buildings and architectural wonders, reckons daily with fears of the next large quake. 'In the most terrifying scenario, an earthquake will shake the entire structure,' Diker said. 'The main arch connecting the main dome and semi-domes could tremble and there might be cracks that occur.' An earthquake could also jolt the minaret into the domes, or cause the arches to collapse entirely.
Diker gestured to trace the arc between the two squat domes either side of the grand central dome as he pointed to patchworks of three separate periods of restoration and repair since the sixth century.
'For the moment, we will deal with the outer surfaces, the minarets and the main dome. We will better understand after removing the dome's lead covering,' he said.
'These reconstructions over different periods created layers of buildup on the dome's surface … we know at the moment it's not a perfect sphere due to the multiple interventions. The problem is not the dome itself but what is holding it up – for now. But when we uncover it we will better see the cracks.'
The team will peel back hundreds of years of the building's history to look at how to strengthen the structure. They are also hoping to uncover hidden murals from Hagia Sophia's time as an Ottoman mosque that may lie beneath some of its gold and yellow surfaces.
The restoration works have no set timetable, and the scaffolding soon to cover the interior is intended to allow for business as usual, while a specially designed cover will protect the fragile exposed surface of the dome from rain or intense heat.
'We need to care for the comfort of our visitors,' Diker said. 'Those who come here should be able to see as much of the Hagia Sophia as they can despite the restoration.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Telegraph
Sacred Mysteries: Out of the ashes, an artist in search of the essential
The fire that burnt down St Mel's Cathedral, Longford, in the early hours of Christmas Day 2009, was so intense that the limestone pillars each side of the nave spalled and cracked in the heat. As with Notre-Dame in Paris, the effects of the fire were unexpected. The roof was destroyed and the floor fell through into the crypt. But a 19th-century painting on canvas of the Holy Family survived unscathed. St Mel's Cathedral serves the diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise. Both ancient foundations, Clonmacnoise was largely abandoned by the 13th century, and Ardagh had been ruinous since 1496, though the foundation stone for the cathedral at Longford was taken from the ruins. The dioceses were united in 1756. The neo-classical cathedral of St Mel's at Longford, begun in 1840, was large enough to seat 1,100 people. The architect was John Benjamin Keane, who had designed Gardiner Street Church in Dublin. The completion of St Mel's was delayed by the Irish Famine. After the fire in 2009, with the economy rocky and unemployment high, it could not have been rebuilt had it not been insured. It reopened for worship five years later, for Christmas 2014. The interior is white and light, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The most striking features are the 22 dark grey Ionic limestone columns dividing the nave from the aisles. Surviving from the old cathedral are two windows made in 1932 by the studio of Harry Clarke. A pleasant surprise to me in the new cathedral are the 14 Stations of the Cross. Because these scenes from the Passion of Christ are, in many churches, products of the 19th century, an era of uneven artistic merit, I seldom find them things of beauty. But Bishop Colm O'Reilly, who set about the reconstruction of the cathedral that he had known all his life, got Ken Thompson, born in Cork in 1946, to carve the stations that were to replace the burnt wooden paintings. Thompson had been influenced by the work of Eric Gill, and says of his own stations: 'The style of the carving is hieratic. My sympathies lie with early pre-Renaissance carving where the artist, in search of the essential, avoids over-realistic representation.' The Bath stone panels for the stations are 55in high and 46in wide. The technique is of bas relief, with the figures raised 1½in from the background. The background is painted a light blue and the lettering picked out in a terracotta colour. The dished haloes of Jesus and the saints are gilded. Each station is accompanied by a quotation from Scripture. 'The gestures of the figures in these panels are, in a sense, liturgical, acting out what has been prophesied about the Suffering Servant in the Old Testament.' A detail in several panels is of green shoots springing to life. They are visible on the hill of Calvary through the door of the tomb in the 14th station, which bears the quotation: 'Why seek you the living among the dead?' It shows Jesus being laid on a stone slab by his disciples. 'This stone slab represents the altar on which Christ's eternal sacrifice is re-enacted in every Mass.' An angel is shown coming from heaven bearing a plaque inscribed 'Gloria' – a memory of the Nativity, a record of what St John calls Jesus's glorification on the Cross, and a prophecy of the Resurrection. Above the door is carved Nika, 'Victor'. I learnt about the new cathedral from a Sister of Mercy, Angela Bracken, who lives in Longford; otherwise I wouldn't have known of it.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Rochester Cathedral welcomes restored WW2 plane for exhibition
A World War Two floatplane has gone on display at a cathedral after 12 years of restoration Short Scion Floatplane G-AEZF aircraft, which was decommissioned in 1958, was squeezed into Rochester Cathedral to go on display from was built in 1937 at the Short Brothers factory, once located on Rochester Parks, director of charitable projects at The Rochester Bridge Trust which helped fund the work, said: "Medway Aircraft Preservation Society has done an amazing job and we are pleased to now be able to put it on display for the whole community to see inside Rochester Cathedral." The trust put £40,000 towards the plane's restoration and the Medway Aircraft Preservation Society spent 12 years restoring plane's visit coincides with an exhibition about the Short Brothers factory's history, for which Rochester Cathedral was awarded a £36,000 National Lottery Heritage will be able to view the plane every day throughout during the day is free, although there may be charges for additional activities and evening events.
Times
2 days ago
- Times
We built the only modern house on the village green
Frant is one of the most idyllic villages in East Sussex. Just over the border from Kent, it is dominated by period buildings — from Georgian to Arts and Crafts — and has a cricket pitch, gothic church, oast house, two pubs and a village green. Its conservation area status is no surprise. Yet overlooking the green, rising above an ancient brick wall, is an unlikely sight: a modernist house. It's the home of Ben Minifie, an architect, and his wife, Gemma, a nurse, and their children, Rupert, 14, Mae, 12, and Meg, 8. It's also the only modern house on the village green. Walking through it on a hot June afternoon, with its white minimalist aesthetic and vast sliding doors that literally bring the outside in — a bird wanders into the living room at one point — I feel as if I'm in a California Case Study house, rather than one in a quaint English village. It may not be typical, but the Minifies' story provides a lesson in how to get planning permission in a historic setting. A golden rule: don't expand the footprint. With judicious rejigging of the floor plan, Ben turned a house with three bedrooms and one bathroom into one with five bedrooms and two bathrooms. The key was making the 3,000 sq ft floor plan more efficient without adding any square footage. Before: the old chalet bungalow had a steep pitched roof and cramped dormers After: Ben opted for a flat roof to make the best use of space AGNESE SANVITO It's a far cry from their old house, a period semi in Tunbridge Wells. After Gemma had their third child in 2017, they were looking to upsize. The couple frequently went for walks in Frant and fantasised about living there, but houses were out of their price range and rarely came up for sale. One day they stumbled across an anomaly: a 1970s chalet bungalow that backed on to the village green that was up for sale. The architect in Ben liked the idea of a project, so they bought the three-bedroom fixer-upper for £690,000 with dreams of transforming it, but knew they were taking a gamble. The house was in a conservation area and in the High Weald National Landscape, with a moratorium on new-builds in the village. They would have to turn a white elephant with no insulation and a failing roof into something fit for the 21st century — without frightening the horses. However, they were smart. Before they had bought the house, they sought pre-planning advice. They asked for guidance from the planning officer, conservation officer and parish council, and took on board their feedback on everything from render colour to the shade of window frame. Even after they bought, Ben invited parish councillors around regularly. 'We got their opinion on plans. We wanted their early involvement. It's good to do any tweaks ahead of going for planning permission,' he says. There had been some new-build development in the village but it was mostly historical pastiche. Ben researched local vernacular and chose his materials accordingly. The handmade Petersen hanging tiles from Denmark evoke Arts and Crafts; the black larch cladding on the façade was a nod to nearby Tudor houses. It also helped that the existing property was built in the 1970s, not an architectural style that's treasured by planning officers. 'Our design was seen as an enhancement,' Ben says. After: the double garage was turned into a single with a new front entrance AKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE TIMES Equally important was getting the neighbours on board. 'Early communication is good and checking through the proposals to see if they've got any concerns,' Ben says. To help to win over their next-door neighbour they removed windows that overlooked them and created new angled ones that gave them privacy. To bring more light into their garden and house, they approached neighbours on both sides and offered to trim the towering hedges to half their height and maintain them, even though the trees are not actually on Ben and Gemma's property. When it came time to gain planning permission, it sailed through in eight weeks. No nimbys, no objections. The fact that they were not extending worked in their favour. 'The original rooms were really big,' Ben says. 'Almost too big. We saw an opportunity to reconfigure the floor plan in a clever way.' So instead of several big, separate rooms, they created a mixture: one open-plan one and a few smaller nooks. 'The original house was built in an almost American model, where the car was quite important,' Ben says. 'The garage was the main thing at the front of the house, and you'd walk down the side of the house to get to the entrance.' Ben turned its double garage into a single, and used the remaining space to create a front entrance, with a hall, boot room, coat storage and bench. The old side entrance was closed off and its former hall is now a study. After: the Scandi-influenced kitchen has a resin floor that looks like polished concrete AGNESE SANVITO On the old floor plan, there was a galley kitchen, dining room, living room and a playroom/downstairs bedroom. None had big windows and they felt cut off from the garden. Ben ditched the galley kitchen and created the front hall, putting the new kitchen where the playroom was at the back of the house. The kitchen, dining room and living room are linked to create one U-shaped open-plan space around a patio. There are vast sliding doors at right angles to each other, separating the open-plan space from outside. When both doors open, the house merges with the patio. As I was chatting to Ben and Gemma, a robin flew in and began hopping around on the living room floor. Another sliding door on the other side of the living room opens on to a side garden — and allowed an exit for the wandering robin. Losing a garage, or a portion of it, is a great way to gain space, especially because they're rarely used for cars any more. Losing the old playroom/bedroom and a downstairs bathroom also helped. By reconfiguring things, they've gained a utility room, a snug for TV-watching and a much bigger kitchen; the only room that stayed in the same place was the WC. They also repositioned the staircase, which allowed them to change the upstairs layout, swapping a large wide landing with three bedrooms for a long thin hallway surrounded by five bedrooms and two bathrooms (one en suite). 'The bedrooms in the old house were vast but inefficient,' Ben says. In the chalet bungalow the old bedrooms had sloped ceilings and dormers. To gain more usable space, Ben swapped the pitched roof for a flat one — giving the bedrooms straight walls — and made the ceilings feel higher by leaving the beams exposed. Ben believes big bedrooms are pointless when all you need is a decent-sized bed and some storage. Flat-roof technology has moved on from the bad old leaky days: this one has a rubber membrane and tapered angle so water drains into invisible rain pipes. The house has been replumbed, rewired and re-insulated with rockwool, and given new Velfac windows. Three rooflights have been added, as well as a double-storey window in the hallway. The ground floor has a resin floor that looks like polished concrete, but is more durable and not as thick (22mm, including underfloor heating, versus 100mm), which makes the ceilings feel higher. After: flat-roof technology has moved on from the bad old leaky days AGNESE SANVITO The flat roof meant they lost eaves storage, but they have crammed new storage under the stairs and hidden in walls behind push-click doors. The remaining garage is also used for storage. They saved money by rebuilding the first floor using timber-frame construction, rather than blockwork. For the Scandi-influenced kitchen, instead of buying a designer brand like DeVol, they bought carcasses from a trade supplier and got the joiner James Christopher to make the oak cupboards, dining table and bench. Ben reckons they saved £15,000 doing it this way. The living room AGNESE SANVITO Sliding doors separate the open-plan space from outside AGNESE SANVITO The budget came to £550,000. Even though they haven't added any square footage, Ben had the house valued and says they've come out slightly ahead financially. 'We didn't do this to make money,' Gemma says. 'It was to live somewhere that we really wanted to live and get a comfortable house. And we didn't want to extend because the garden's not huge and we didn't want to lose it. But we're hugely lucky because we go out of the gate and we're straight on to the village green.' The secret to their success was blending in rather than standing out. 'We wanted it to complement this gorgeous place and actually be a cool addition rather than just plonk something contemporary on the village green,' Gemma says. 'I'm trying to think of other pretty, historic villages where there's a contemporary house right in the middle. I don't think there are that many. I feel pretty lucky that we've been able to do it.'
