THE HAGIA SOPHIA IN ITS URBAN CONTEXT: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF AN ARCHITECTURAL MONUMENT WITH ITS CHANGING PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School of Engineering and Sciences of İzmir Institute of Technology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in Architecture by Nazlı TARAZ August 2014 İZMİR We approve the thesis of Nazlı TARAZ Examining Committee Members: ___________________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Zeynep AKTÜRE Department of Architecture, İzmir Institute of Technology _____________________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Ela ÇİL SAPSAĞLAM Department of Architecture, İzmir Institute of Technology ___________________________ Dr. Çiğdem ALAS 25 August 2014 ___________________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Zeynep AKTÜRE Supervisor, Department of Architecture, İzmir Institute of Technology ____ ___________________________ ______________________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şeniz ÇIKIŞ Prof. Dr. R. Tuğrul SENGER Head of the Department of Architecture Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering and Sciences ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Assist.Prof.Dr.Zeynep AKTÜRE for her guidance, patience and sharing her knowledge during the entire study. This thesis could not be completed without her valuable and unique support. I would like to express my sincere thanks to my committee members Assist. Prof. Dr. Ela ÇİL SAPSAĞLAM, Dr. Çiğdem ALAS, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erdem ERTEN and Assist. Prof. Dr. Zoltan SOMHEGYI for their invaluable comments and recommendations. I owe thanks to my sisters Yelin DEMİR, Merve KILIÇ, Nil Nadire GELİŞKAN and Banu Işıl IŞIK for not leaving me alone and encouraging me all the time. And I also thank to Seçkin YILDIRIMDEMİR who has unabled to sleep for days to help and motivate me in the hardest times of this study. Special thanks to my mom Afife Neslihan TARAZ, my dad Orhan TARAZ and to my brother Ali Can TARAZ for their outstanding support, trust and making me keep going despite the problems and difficulties. Others too many to mention have inspired and encouraged me during thie study and all of them I owe a dept of gratitude. ABSTRACT THE HAGIA SOPHIA IN ITS URBAN CONTEXT: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF AN ARCHITECTURAL MONUMENT WITH ITS CHANGING PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT In this thesis, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is handled as a living monument in its physical and cultural context in the Historic Peninsula to question the existence of a correlation between the changes in the building scale and transformations in a larger physical and cultural context. In order to do this, urban and architectural scale studies on the Historic Peninsula and Hagia Sophia are cross-read to highlight Hagia Sophia as the center of a continuously changing physical and cultural context which is changing with its transforming environment and, at the same time, changes its context through conversions that occur in the building scale up to the Ottoman conquest in the fifteenth century. This survey reveals Hagia Sophia as one of the most important architectural monuments in the world that has been a continually transforming edifice to remain in use for different civilizations in a synchronously changing urban context. The importance of the urban context of Hagia Sophia has had a major share in the maintenance of the building’s importance. Changes and continuities in Hagia Sophia, in their turn, had their share in the maintenance of the importance of the building’s urban context in a larger scale in a palimpsestic process. Keywords: Hagia Sophia; Historic Peninsula of Istanbul; continuities and changes; urban context, palimpsest iv ÖZET KENTSEL BAĞLAMI İÇİNDE AYA SOFYA: BİR MİMARİ ANITIN DÖNÜŞÜMLERİNİN DEĞİŞEN FİZİKSEL VE KÜLTÜREL ÇEVRESİ İLE BİR YORUMU Bu tez kapsamında, İstanbul’daki Ayasofya, Tarihi Yarımada’daki fiziksel ve kültürel bağlamı içinde yaşayan bir anıt olarak ele alınarak, yapı ölçeğindeki değişimler ile daha geniş bir fiziksel ve kültürel bağlam içinde gerçekleşen dönüşümler arasındaki karşılıklı etkileşimin varlığı araştırılmıştır. Bu amaçla, Tarihi Yarımada ve Ayasofya üzerine yapılan kent ve yapı ölçeğindeki çalışmalar çakıştırılarak okunmuş ve Ayasofya’nın onbeşinci yüzyılda gerçekleşen Osmanlı fethine kadar, değişen fiziksel ve kültürel bağlamı içinde dönüşürken, eş zamanlı olarak içinde bulunduğu çevreyi de yapı ölçeğindeki dönüşümler üzerinden değiştiren bir merkez olduğu ortaya çıkarılmıştır. Bu çalışma, dünyanın en önemli mimari anıtlarından biri olan Ayasofya’nın sürekli dönüşerek, eş zamanlı olarak değişen bir kentsel bağlam içinde farklı uygarlıkların kullanımında kalan bir mimari yapıt olduğunu göstermiştir. Ayasofya’nın önemini korumasında, yapının kentsel bağlamının önemi büyüktür. Aynı zamanda, yapı ölçeğindeki süreklilik ve değişimlerin de tarih boyunca Ayasofya’nın içinde bulunduğu kentsel bağlamın daha geniş bir ölçekte palimpsest bir süreç yoluyla önemini korumasındaki büyük etkisi görülmüştür. Anahtar kelimeler: Ayasofya; İstanbul Tarihi Yarımada; süreklilikler ve değişimler; kentsel bağlam, palimpsest v To İcloş and Ali Dede… vi TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1 1.1. Conceptual Framework ........................................................................ 2 1.2. Literature Review ................................................................................. 8 1.3. Scope and Outline............................................................................... 13 1.4. Methodology....................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2 SETTLEMENT HISTORY OF THE HISTORIC PENINSULA OF ISTANBUL: FROM THE FOUNDATION 20 OF GREEK BYZANTION (7TH C. BC) TO OTTOMAN KONSTANTINIYYE (15TH C. AD) ................................................... 20 2.1. The Greek Byzantion: The First Settlement on the Acropolis and the Coastal Stretch (7th c. BC-AD 2nd c.) ......................................... 21 2.2. The Roman Byzantium: New Center of Urban Life Near the Hippodrome (2nd c.-4th c.) ................................................................ 24 2.3. Refoundation as the Capital of Roman Empire by Constantine the Great (4th c.) ....................................................................................... 27 2.4. Christianization of the City by Theodosius the Great (4th c.-6th c.) ...... 34 2.5. Monumentalization of Constantinople by Justinian the Great (6th c.) ........................................................................................................ 39 2.6. From Constantinople to Konstantiniyye: The Historic Peninsula up to the Ottoman Conquest (6th c. -15th c.) ..................................... 44 2.7. Konstantiniyye: Ottoman Capital of Sultan Mehmed II (15th c.) ...... 51 2.8. Chapter Conclusion ............................................................................ 58 CHAPTER 3 HAGIA SOPHIA AS A TRUE PALIMPSEST: CONSTRUCTION STAGES AND REFERENCES OF THE MONUMENT .................... 62 3.1. The Augusteion Square and its Vicinity: Above and Underground Layout of the Historic Peninsula ........................................................ 63 vii 3.2. Model City Rome and the Imperial Trilogy: Hippodrome-Temple- Palace .................................................................................................. 68 3.3. Early Christian Churches from the 3rd Century to the Justinain’s Great Hagia Sophia in the 6th Century ............................................... 79 3.4. Hagia Sophia: From the Initial Constantinian Construction to the Justinian the Great’s Great Monument ............................................... 90 3.5. Imperial Ceremonies: The Route from the Great Palace to Hagia Sophia ................................................................................................. 99 3.6. Chapter Conclusion .......................................................................... 103 CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION HAGIA SOPHIA AS A CUMULATIVE PALIMPSEST: ITS CHANGING CONTEXT AND USES FROM THE CONSTANTINIAN BASILICA (4TH C.) TO THE ROYAL MOSQUES OF MEHMED II (15TH C.) ........................................... 105 4.1. From Crusades to the Ottoman Conquest: Continuities and Changes in Hagia Sophia and Its Neighborhood .............................. 106 4.2. Hagia Sophia in 1453: The Imperial Mosque of the Ottoman Empire . 120 4.3. An Overview of the Palimpsestic Process in Hagia Sophia and its Urban and Imperial Context ............................................................. 123 4.4. Conclusion and Further Studies.............................................................. REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 137 APPENDICES APPENDIX A. CHRONOLOGICAL MAPS OF THE HISTORIC PENINSULA OF ISTANBUL (7TH C. BC-15TH C. AD) ...................................... 144 APPENDIX B. PALIMPSEST MAPS OF THE HISTORIC PENINSULA OF ISTANBUL (7TH C. BC-15TH C. AD) ............................................. 150 APPENDIX C. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE EMPERORS (7TH C. BC- 15TH C. AD) .....................................................................................