by Istanbul (AP) -The Türkiye has started a new phase of extensive restorations by the almost 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and focused on preserving the historical coupling of the monument from the threat of earthquakes.
Officials say that the project will include the reinforcement of the main dome of Hagia Sophia and the half domes, the replacement of the worn lead covers and the upgrade of the steel smell, while the adoration in the mosque continues.
A newly installed tower crane in the eastern facade is expected to make the efforts to be transported through the transport of materials and accelerate the renovation work.
“We have carried out intensive restoration efforts for Hagia Sophia and his surrounding structures for three years,” said Dr. Mehmet Selim Okten, lecturer at Mimar Sinan University and a member of the scientific council, who supervises the renovation work. “At the end of these three years, we focused on the seismic security of Hagia Sophia, the minarets, the main dome and the main sheets, especially due to the expected earthquake of Istanbul.”
In 2023, an earthquake of 7.8 size met southern Türkiye, which destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings or damaged and left more than 53,000 people dead. While Istanbul was not affected, the devastation in southern Türkiye increased the fears of a similar quake with experts who quoted the proximity of the city into lines.
Okten said that a “new phase” of the work should begin, one that he describes as the most important intervention for over 150 years and in the entirety of the long history of the structure.
“A tower crane is installed on the eastern facade, and then we will cover the top of this unique structure with a protective frame system,” he said. “In this way we can work more safely and examine the layers of the building academically, including damage that has suffered in the 10th and 14th centuries of fires and earthquakes.”
Hagia Sophia was built in 537 by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was transformed into a mosque with the 1453 Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding manager of the Turkish Republic, transformed it into a museum in 1934.
Although an appendix to Hagia Sophia, the sultan’s pavilion, had been open to prayers since the 1990s, religious and nationalist groups in Turkey had long seen in Turkey after the almost 1,500 -year -old building, which they considered the legacy of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet, which conquered in a mossque, had been regarded.
The highest administrative court in Türkiye raised the 1934 decree in 2020 and resumed it as a mosque.
“We have completed our work on the four minarets and the main structure,” said Okten. “But for this unique cultural heritage (the domes) we plan to use modern, light materials and keep the building to the public.”
Visitors to the website expressed the approval of the plan.
“Hagia Sophia is incredible, it is one of the most important monuments in the world,” said Rupert Webgerif, lecturer at Cambridge University. “It seems really important that they will strengthen and preserve it with earthquakes.”
Okten said that it was not clear when the renovation work would be completed that the process would be accessible to the public to be “transparently monitored”.
