Emperor Constantius II, the son of Constantine the Great, was the first to commission a church (on the site of what may or may not have been an ancient pagan temple) in the city that would come to bear his father’s name. The church was expanded on later by Emperor Theodosius II, becoming the largest church in Constantinople, but the structure burned down to the ground. Then Emperor Justinian I decided on a major architectural project, an even grander structure built on top of the former one, intended to be a landmark for the city and all of Christendom. Stones and a hundred thousand builders were brought in from all over the world to build a design worked out by two of the greatest architects of the age, Anthemius of Tralles (Aydin) and Isidorus of Miletus.

On this day, December 27, 537, the Hagia Sophia (from the Greek “holy wisdom”) church was completed. At its dedication ceremony Justinian I, who personally oversaw construction, was said to have offered up a prayer and referred to the ancient Jewish temple in Rome destroyed in the sixth century B.C. Justinian exclaimed “Oh Solomon, I have surpassed thee.”

If God heard Justinian, He apparently was not very pleased, as just twenty years after its completion, an earthquake leveled part of the temple. Further earthquakes damaged the building more, but each time it was repaired and reinforced. When Mehmed II of the Ottoman empire finally captured Constantinople in the 15th, the Hagia Sophia was not immune from pillaging, but its occupants continued services and prayer until the very end, when Ottoman warriors batted down the church doors. After that, the Hagia Sophia was changed from a church to a mosque.