Hagia Sophia Essay

At the peak of the Roman Empire, the territory spanned from the western reaches of Spain to the deserts of Egypt. Such power had never been seen in the Western world before the Romans. Sadly, due to massive size, the power the Roman Empire possessed hardly served to last. Over time and multiple emperors, the empire slowly decayed, financially and politically. Eventually, the empire was split into Eastern and Western portions in the hopes to ease political and economic struggles. Each side of the

The Bible is the story of an all-powerful being, God, creating the world and everything in it, battling an evil entity, the Devil (which God was also the creator of), and fighting to win the obedience and love of his favorite creations – humans. This story has been the source of innumerable retellings, spin-offs, and fan groups, as well as the inspiration for great works of fine art, sculpture, songs, and sometimes colonization. The main character – God – creates a world where the “heavens” separate

URBAN PATTERN Settlements of any size and type can always be formally synthesized by their patterns, so it means pattern identify the settlements. Town houses in gridiron blocks, high-rise office structures, academic campuses, suburban estates, and highway retail sprawl are good examples. Urban form, then, is a result of the bringing together of many elements in a composite totality:the urban pattern. Patterns are the outstanding formal features of urban areas. A pattern can be defined as

Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, a new empire rose up in the ashes. This new empire, the Byzantine Empire, was a culmination of Western Roman cultures and tradition, yet, it also contains many distinctive features. Originating from the same empire, the two empires display similar cultural roots. Roman emperor Constantine strategically chose Byzantion, also referred to as Byzantium, as the new imperial capital for the Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine named the capital

The sun was barely peeking over the horizon, and I could hear the nearby mosques call out the on the speakers, which signaled the start of morning prayer for nearly 15 million Muslims living in Istanbul. It had been nearly 8 hours since my friend, Basil, and I started wandering around Istanbul’s most popular tourist sites, and it had almost been 6 hours since we had first gotten lost. Walking around all night trying to figure out how we had gotten into such a sticky situation, we exited the famous

The Early Classical Greek Temple of Hera II from Paestum, Italy, built circa 460 BCE, has influenced many works, such as the Carolingian Palatine Chapel built by Odo of Metz in Aachen, Germany from 792-805 BCE under command of the patron, Charlemagne. The Second Temple of Hera is one of the most studied Greek temples since it is in such good condition and has so much to offer historians. The Palatine Chapel, highly inspired by ancient Greek architectural design, was closely supervised by Charlemagne

Architecture has always been adapting, revisiting and appropriating what has been done before, looking back to precedents to find new inspirations. Despite new technology and pop-culture, history dictates symbolism and formalistic appeal even if we are unaware of it. We grow up associating certain symbols and imagery to its connotated meaning, for example, when we see a cross we immediately think of Christianity. Because of that, churches nowadays continue to look back to ancient Christian structure

they went from viewing the Mother Earth as the source of life to venerating Mary as the Virgin of Motherhood. The reason Vladimir decided to convert to Christianity was because of the immense beauty his men saw when they visited the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, This desire for beauty was translated into beautiful Russian art and music. The Orthodox liturgy continually inspired poetry, music and art, for, unlike the Catholic liturgy in the West, it was from the beginning the possession of the whole Christian

During the Late Renaissance period, the largest church in the world and a grand symbol of papal authority was built within the territory of the Vatican City. Principally designed by famous architects, such as Michelangelo, Donato Bramante, Carlo Maderno and Gian Bernini Lorenzo, St Peter’s Basilica- built between 1506 to 1626- is one of the greatest Renaissance architectures and is regarded as “the greatest of all churches of Christendom”. Believed to be the site of Saint Peter’s tomb, one of the

In reading a Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich you realize that history seems so much less complicated when you are the one standing back and reflecting on the past. You realize how easy it is to often forget that every single new idea, religion and war was a struggle that lasted generations upon generations. History is more than just a page or a story, its our account of the world. That goes to show how short life and history is, you realize that history is always repeating, war after