ARTDAILY
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| This picture taken on July 2, 2020 shows the Hagia Sophia museum in Istanbul. Turkey's top court considered whether Istanbul's emblematic landmark and former cathedral Hagia Sophia can be redesignated as a mosque, a ruling which could inflame tensions with the West. Ozan KOSE / AFP.
by Gokan Gunes with Raziye Akkoc in Ankara |
ISTANBUL (AFP).- Turkey's top court considered Thursday whether Istanbul's emblematic landmark and former cathedral Hagia Sophia can be redesignated as a mosque, a ruling which could inflame tensions with the West. The sixth-century edifice -- a magnet for tourists worldwide with its stunning architecture -- has been a museum since 1935, open to believers of all faiths.
Despite occasional protests outside the site by Islamic groups, often shouting, "Let the chains break and open Hagia Sophia" for Muslim prayers, authorities have so far kept the building as a museum.
Hagia Sophia was first constructed as a cathedral in the Christian Byzantine Empire in the sixth century but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. [
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