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Exhibit Showcases History of Extraordinary Byzantine Monument, Church of Hagia Sophia in Trabzon, Turkey

hagia sophiaAn exhibition about the church of Hagia Sophia (Saint Sophia) in Trebizond is open at the Koç University’s ANAMED Gallery in İstiklal Caddesi in central Istanbul until September.
The church has had many roles over the 750 years in which it has stood.
From being an imperial Byzantine monument, stables, a hospital during World War I, a mosque and, after restoration work done in the 1960s, a museum.
The less famous church of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond, now called Trabzon by the Turks was reverted from its status in Turkish law as a museum to that of a mosque in 2012 following the religious authorities (Diyanet) filing a lawsuit against the Ministry of Culture, saying that the ministry had been “illegally occupying” the church for decades.
After the Diyanet won the case and on July 5 2013, it opened as a mosque where many of the church’s paintings and beautiful ancient floor were concealed as it was announced that  “during the prayer the mural paintings will be covered by curtains.”
Following this, a local union of architects from Trabzon filed yet another lawsuit against the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ conversion plan to run the mosque and a local judge ruled that the transformation of the former church to be illegal, and said that it was to be maintained as a museum.
Hagia Sophia in Trabzon is considered to be the greatest surviving imperial Byzantine monument of the 13th century in Turkey and is an amazing sight filled with history and culture as it incorporates elements from the Byzantium Empire with the Turkish and Caucasian societies in Anatolia at that time.
 

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