THE CHURCH OF HAGIA SOPHIA IN THE 6TH CENTURY: THE BIRTH OF A SYMBOL

This essay brings us back to the birth of the church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, in a moment of great splendour of the Byzantine Empire. The "great church", as it was defined, played a symbolic role, both from the political point of view, in order to assert the power (and the profession of faith) of Justinian, both from the theological point of view so as to emphasize, with its play of lights and shadows, how divine wisdom underlies creation. The Sixth-Century propaganda helps us to imagine the importance of this building since its construction and how, in any time, possession of this masterwork has been desired. In the name of inter-religious peace, its use today as a museum must be defended.