Aya Sophia, Istanbul. August 2020
Repurposing
On my second round the world trip (that time with Brian), the starting point was Istanbul. Along with Topkapı Sarayı, Aya Sophia was at the top of the list of sites to visit in that ancient city.
In 1991, the building had long been deconsecrated and made into a museum. The old, plastered-over religious mosaics and paintings were uncovered and revealed gorgeous artwork creating this odd mishmash of Christian and Islamic themes sprinkled liberally under its massive dome. I still remember how thrilling it was to visit that space and how visceral I felt about it having been converted into a mosque. For me, it was almost a sacrilege to have defiled the space with the clearly ad hoc trappings of a poor attempt to make an obvious church into a mosque. "Infidels" I thought. I was surprised how strongly I felt about it. Apparently, I was not alone:
Built between 532 and 537, Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom, Ayasofya) represents a brilliant moment in Byzantine architecture and art. It was the principal church of the Byzantine Empire in its capital, Constantinople (later Istanbul), and a mosque after the Ottoman Empire conquered the city in 1453. The decision of the Turkish government in 1934 to establish Ayasofya as a museum was intended to make it a repository of human history—all human history, not a single history confined to one religion or people. Recently, this decision was annulled, turning the building again into a mosque.
With the passage of time, Hagia Sophia has become deeply embedded in competing narratives of national, regional, religious, and cultural significance. Selective readings of cultural heritage, however, can effectively erase historical memory and sever links with the past. As a monument on the world stage, it should be allowed to maintain multiple meanings, to resonate with multiple narratives and histories for diverse audiences. This exceptional building belongs to world cultural heritage.
https://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/scholarly-activities/hagia-sophia-the-history-of-the-building-and-the-building-in-history
Later, when I lived in Singapore, one of my favorite places to walk around downtown was CHIJMES (Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Middle English School). An entire convent had been converted into shops and restaurants. The church was still used as a wedding venue, but mostly for receptions - not the religious ceremony. Chatham House, the oldest existing building in Singapore, was on the grounds. The place was steeped in history, especially religious history. I loved it in its new incarnation. That it used to be a church and convent? I didn't care at all.
Many years later in Rome I visited the Pantheon, an ancient Roman structure. In fact it was one of the best preserved Roman temples in the entire WORLD. These days it was still a functioning church and I felt outraged. No matter how many centuries it had been a church, how ridiculous to take an old Roman temple and forcibly convert it to a church. Those days of forcing Christianity into everything were long over (I hoped). Deconsecrate it - remake it into the amazing archeological monument it was! Rome was literally drowning in churches - it had only ONE complete Roman temple.
Not long after, I was in Cordoba, Spain to visit the "Mezquita", the Grand Mosque of Cordoba. After the Reconquista, even the ultra-Catholic Spanish were loathe to destroy such a beautiful religious structure. They simply carved out a hole in the center and built a church. Whether I had grown as a person or whether perhaps I was purist who just preferred things maintain their original purposes (most likely the latter), I was just as outraged at the building of that church, totally ruining the flow of the most beautiful mosque in Europe, as I was at Aya Sophia's conversion to a mosque.
Not so long after that, after fleeing Iraq, I was back in Istanbul by force waiting for a flight home to the US during the start of the pandemic. I made the most of my few days there and, of course, I wanted to visit Aya Sophia again. By this time, as mentioned above, politics had shifted in Turkey and the museum had reverted to a mosque. Due to political pressure, the precious Christian artworks could not be covered over or removed but they COULD be "hidden" with scaffoldings and well-placed curtains. The place still impressed, but as a mosque it was falling terribly short. In fact, the place was "worse" than the first time I had visited (although Turkey had far deeper pockets for upkeep than on my first visit so it was in better repair overall).
In the end, I think I am mostly a purist and would prefer buildings, especially religious ones, to keep to their original purposes. CHIJMES is an outlier for some reason. I didn't feel "offended" that it had been turned into a food and beverage extravaganza.
I guess we all can be inconsistent.
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