Which empire built the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople as a cathedral completed in 537 CE?

The Byzantine Empire built the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople as a cathedral completed in 537 CE.

Emperor Justinian I commissioned the present building after an earlier church was destroyed during the Nika riots of 532. The architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus designed its vast central dome and complex pendentive structure, which allowed a circular dome to rest above a square space.

Hagia Sophia served as the cathedral of Constantinople and became one of the most important buildings in Eastern Christianity. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, it was converted into a mosque. It became a museum in 1935 and was reconverted into a mosque in 2020. Its mosaics, later Islamic additions, and layered history reflect the city’s changing religious and political identities.