Images recorded by a drone show aerial views of the work being carried out on Hagia Sophia, which is undergoing the largest restoration in its history to reinforce its structure against possible earthquakes such as the one that recently struck Istanbul, where scientists predict that a ‘Big One’ will occur in the coming decades.
According to Turkish news agencies, the reinforcement work affects the main dome, the semi-domes, the minarets and the outer layer of Hagia Sophia, based on analyses and examinations by experts who determined that these structures needed to be strengthened to make them more resistant to earthquakes.
The so-called Hagia Sophia Scientific Commission determined months ago that, due to the impacts that occur during an earthquake, there is a risk of weakening of the arches and collapse of the main dome, which could lead to the appearance of cracks and even the partial or total collapse of the structure. Seismologists have been warning for some time that there is a high probability that in the coming decades – and in any case before the end of the century – there will be an earthquake of magnitude 7 or higher in Istanbul, which could cause the collapse of thousands of buildings and serious damage to its main monuments.
Hagia Sophia was built in 537 by order of the Roman emperor Justinian I the Great, although centuries later it was converted into a mosque after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 at the hands of the Ottomans. Converted into a museum in 1934, in 2020 Hagia Sophia was reopened as a mosque by presidential decree, following a legal ruling that deemed its conversion into a museum illegal.
In its early years, after the earthquake that struck Constantinople in 557, the main dome of Hagia Sophia was seriously damaged, with cracks appearing that a year later, on 7 May 558 while repair work was being carried out, led to the collapse of the upper part of the eastern vault and the eastern half of the main dome, which had to be rebuilt. Hagia Sophia was reopened on 24 December 562 by Justinian himself, with a new dome 6 metres higher and steeper, making it more resistant to earthquakes, and which has survived to this day.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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