The ANU (Canberra) Friends of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens warmly invite you to this illustrated lecture

Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is one of the greatest architectural monuments in the world. Originally built as the Byzantine Cathedral of Constantinople under Emperor Justinian in the sixth century, it remained the world’s largest cathedral for almost a millennium and has frequently been described as the most beautiful church in Christendom. This lecture examines the architecture and the mosaic embellishments of Hagia Sophia during the 900 years that it served as a Christian church before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.