Which empire commissioned the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in the sixth century?

The Byzantine Empire commissioned the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in the sixth century.

Emperor Justinian I ordered the present building after earlier churches on the site were destroyed during the Nika riots of 532. The architects Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus designed the new church, which was completed in 537. Its enormous dome, pendentives, marble surfaces, and mosaics made it one of the most ambitious buildings of late antiquity.

Hagia Sophia served as the cathedral of Constantinople and the principal church of the Byzantine Empire for nearly nine centuries. After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, it was converted into a mosque, and minarets and other Islamic architectural features were added. It became a museum in 1935 and was reconverted into a mosque in 2020. The name means “Holy Wisdom,” not the name of a saint named Sophia. Constantinople was renamed Istanbul in common international usage over time, but the historic building remains in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district.