Justinian Rebuilds Hagia Sophia After the Nika Riots
The church burned by rioters rises again as the largest domed building in the world
Quick facts
- Commissioned by
- Justinian I
- Architects
- Anthemius of Tralles, Isidore of Miletus
- Built
- 532 to 537 CE
- Dedicated
- December 27, 537 CE
What happened
The Nika riots of 532 CE burned down the existing Church of Hagia Sophia along with much of central Constantinople. Justinian I used the destruction as an opportunity to commission an entirely new building on a scale no one had attempted before, appointing the mathematician Anthemius of Tralles and the physicist Isidore of Miletus as architects. Construction ran from 532 to 537 CE, and the new Hagia Sophia was inaugurated on December 27, 537 CE. Its vast central dome, an unprecedented feat of engineering for the period, sits atop a building that dominated the Constantinople skyline and became the model for later domed Byzantine churches across the empire.
Why it matters
Hagia Sophia stood as the paramount achievement of Justinian's building program and the center of Byzantine religious and imperial life for the following nine centuries, later serving as a mosque after 1453 and remaining one of the most significant surviving structures from Late Antiquity.
How we know
The rebuilding and its 537 CE dedication are documented in the World History Encyclopedia's article on Hagia Sophia, which names the architects and construction timeline drawn from Byzantine chronicles.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Hagia Sophia · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Empress Theodora · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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