Hagia Sophia: Church, Mosque or Museum, your thoughts?

[Charlotte Ryberg]

In my opinion, a museum and multicultural centre to unite faiths.

[Risottia]

Over 1000 years ago the great church of Hagia Sophia was built then as Constantinople fell Hagia Sophia was converted to a Mosque and now its a museum. What do u feel it should. And please do not pick your side because you are a radical, but pick the side you truly believe is right

Seat of the Supreme Soviet of the Turkish European Socialist Republic. *nod*

[Ceannairceach]

A cultural muesem, preferebly showing the great mixing of Eastern European and Turkish/Arab culture.

[Coffee Cakes]

It should be a museum... of history or culture preferably.

[Brandenburg-Altmark]

It was the greatest Mosque on earth for a long time, but the Ottomans saw fit to convert it into a Museum. That's how it will stay. Istanbul has enough Mosques anyway, really. Got to love the Ottomans, building a new Mosque in Istanbul every time they won a conflict.

[Angleter]

It was the greatest Mosque on earth for a long time, but the Ottomans saw fit to convert it into a Museum. That's how it will stay. Istanbul has enough Mosques anyway, really. Got to love the Ottomans, building a new Mosque in Istanbul every time they won a conflict.

The Ottomans didn't, Ataturk did. And he didn't like religion all that much.

[Voltronica]

A Mega-Mall fully equipped with a worldly food court.

[Auremena]

All of the above, really. I've actually been inside it.

[Tekania]

A Mega-Mall fully equipped with a worldly food court.

They can sell Pope-on-a-Rope and pork shish kabobs

[Greater Tezdrian]

Church.

[Sdaeriji]

Turn it into a Wendy's.

[Greed and Death]

Museum. LEt building belong to all Turks, and let us learn about its history.

[Farnhamia]

Turn it into a Wendy's.

It's big enough, you could have one of each kind of American fast food joints in there, plus parking!

[Ragnarsdomr]

Orthodox Church. Seeing as the Patriarch has to have been born in Constantinople, it's only right that they at least allow them their building back so they can hopefully attract Greeks back.

Unless Turkey is finally going to admit that they killed the Armenians. Take your pick, though, Turkey. Genocide or let the Patriarch have his fancy church back?



Alternatively, turn the entire of Miklagarðr into a breeding ground for sacrificial offerings to Odin and the Aesir.

[Sdaeriji]

Turn it into a Wendy's.

It's big enough, you could have one of each kind of American fast food joints in there, plus parking!

Yeah, but it's the Hagia Sophia, so you'd have to retain some class. No Denny's.

[Farnhamia]

It's big enough, you could have one of each kind of American fast food joints in there, plus parking!

Yeah, but it's the Hagia Sophia, so you'd have to retain some class. No Denny's.

Yes, yes, one must have some standards.

[Gauthier]

I say turn it into a brothel, that way Muslims and Christians can be offended together.

A bacon selling brothel.

A bacon selling brothel with gay services and hidden cameras so they can catch some of those offended Christians and Muslims sneaking in for some patronage.

[The Archregimancy]

I would be lying if I didn't admit that, in my heart of hearts, I would love to see the Orthodox liturgy performed regularly in Hagia Sophia again - but realistically, I've missed the sailing of that particular boat by some 558 years. It's never going to happen.

So over here in the real world.... Ataturk's decision to turn it into a museum was a excellent one, immediately neutralising most of the religious arguments that surround the building, and also thereby allowing a genuine appreciation of both its Orthodox and Muslim past as there's now no religious obstacle to selectively displaying the surviving Byzantine mosaics. Religious worship by either Christians or Muslims is strictly forbidden, and the prohibition equally applied to both groups (though I understand that there's a small prayer room for use of staff of either religion discreetly hidden in the staff sections).

I last visited Hagia Sophia in 2008. To be honest, unless you have a very good guide book, or - like me - some interest in and awareness of Byzantine history, art and architecture, there's a real danger that you'll find it to be a disappointing experience. True, it's a monumentally impressive building on the inside, but there are almost no interpretive panels anywhere; so if you don't know much about any of those saints in the upper level, or who Zoe Porphyrogenita and Constantine IX Monomachus were, what those marble 'doors' are doing on the upper level, or just why it's so ironic that the only visible grave marker in the interior should read 'Henricus Dandalo', then the monumental size of the place may be all that you take away. Certainly you have to know where the 10th/11th century Varangian Guard graffiti is, because you'll never find it on your own.

It's an incredibly impressive structure, and despite the reservations I've just written, I'm very glad that it's a museum, and I would strongly recommend a visit. Under present circumstances, its museum status is by far the best and fairest of solutions.

[Fedeledland]

I'd wish it to remain a museum.

[Imperium Neo Roma]

It's a fancy piece of Architecture that has lost its original meaning.

[Bitchkitten]

Mueum, hopefully. Memorializing all the silliness, intolerance and strife historically caused by religion. At least I hope so. I hope mankind will stop being held hostage by such superstition. It'll be like the memorial at Auschwitz, sort of a "never again" memorial.

[Fartsniffage]

I would be lying if I didn't admit that, in my heart of hearts, I would love to see the Orthodox liturgy performed regularly in Hagia Sophia again - but realistically, I've missed the sailing of that particular boat by some 558 years. It's never going to happen.

So over here in the real world.... Ataturk's decision to turn it into a museum was a excellent one, immediately neutralising most of the religious arguments that surround the building, and also thereby allowing a genuine appreciation of both its Orthodox and Muslim past as there's now no religious obstacle to selectively displaying the surviving Byzantine mosaics. Religious worship by either Christians or Muslims is strictly forbidden, and the prohibition equally applied to both groups (though I understand that there's a small prayer room for use of staff of either religion discreetly hidden in the staff sections).

I last visited Hagia Sophia in 2008. To be honest, unless you have a very good guide book, or - like me - some interest in and awareness of Byzantine history, art and architecture, there's a real danger that you'll find it to be a disappointing experience. True, it's a monumentally impressive building on the inside, but there are almost no interpretive panels anywhere; so if you don't know much about any of those saints in the upper level, or who Zoe Porphyrogenita and Constantine IX Monomachus were, what those marble 'doors' are doing on the upper level, or just why it's so ironic that the only visible grave marker in the interior should read 'Henricus Dandalo', then the monumental size of the place may be all that you take away. Certainly you have to know where the 10th/11th century Varangian Guard graffiti is, because you'll never find it on your own.

It's an incredibly impressive structure, and despite the reservations I've just written, I'm very glad that it's a museum, and I would strongly recommend a visit. Under present circumstances, its museum status is by far the best and fairest of solutions.

Why does the only visible grave marker in the interior read 'Henricus Dandalo'?

[Al-Harakut al-Islami]

It should be what it is now -- a museum. I would like it to be a mosque, but I feel like a museum makes more sense and would offend less people.

[Oterro]

It should be what it is now -- a museum. I would like it to be a mosque, but I feel like a museum makes more sense and would offend less people.

Why would you like it to be a mosque?

[Meowfoundland]

It should just stay a museum. That way, all can enjoy it.