From an ancient mosque to a brand-new entertainment center, these are the buildings you have to see in Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul. Plus, learn the awe-inspiring history behind these buildings and their architects.
Earlier versions of the descriptions of these buildings first appeared in 1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die, edited by Mark Irving (2016). Writers’ names appear in parentheses.
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia (or the Church of the Holy Wisdom) is a former cathedral that was converted into a mosque in 1435 and then into a museum in 1935 and again into a mosque in 2020. It was originally built as part of the newly founded Constantinople for the Roman emperor Constantine in 326. It was rebuilt by Justinian in 537. Its plan was drawn up by two men who were better known as scientists than architects—Anthemius of Tralles, an expert in projective geometry, and his colleague Isidore of Miletus, a teacher of stereometry and physics.
It is perhaps the designers’ theoretical approach that resulted in the project, which challenged structural norms. The vast central dome spans 107 feet (32.6 meters) and is raised more than 164 feet (50 meters) above the nave, which is in turn compressed by a series of interlocking domes, semidomes, and apsidal spaces. Beneath it, 40 clerestory windows allow shafts of suffused light to cut into the structure so that the dome appears to float. The dome was the first to be built using the pendentive—an architectural device that resolves the meeting of the curve of the dome and the right angle of the wall below. This redistributed the weight of the dome, though there have been a few collapses over the years.
From the exterior, the building is striking above all for the evident complexity of massed geometric forms, although there is no clear facade to the design. Sixteenth-century minarets, added when the church was converted to a mosque, give the building an intelligible frame. Once the largest cathedral in the world, Hagia Sophia is still regarded as a sacred space by many Christians and Muslims. (Fabrizio Nevola)
Süleymaniye Mosque
Crowning the Third Hill in Istanbul is the vast complex of domes and minarets that is the Süleymaniye, the finest of the city’s mosques. Completed in 1557, it dominates the skyline, just as its founder, Süleyman the Magnificent, dominates Ottoman history. It stands as a monument not only to the greatest of the sultans but also to Mimar Sinan, his chief architect. Born a Christian, Sinan was drafted into the elite Corps of Janissaries and forcibly converted to Islam. He was the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire, responsible for no fewer than 80 mosques, 34 palaces, and countless schools, hospitals, tombs, and public baths. When Süleyman decided to raise his own mosque in 1550, he inevitably turned to Sinan.
The basic plan, with a huge 90-foot- (27-meter-) wide central dome flanked by two semidomes, follows that of Hagia Sophia, built a thousand years earlier. However, in Hagia Sophia the central area beneath the dome is separated from the aisles by colonnades on each side. In the Süleymaniye, Sinan made his supporting piers so tall and spaced them so far apart that he created the impression of a single vast continuum. Decoration is restrained: only the stained-glass windows and the Iznik tiles—turquoise, coral red, and deep blue—provide color. With four minarets that are the highest in Turkey, the Süleymaniye mosque is the crowning glory of Islamic Istanbul. (John Julius Norwich)
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