Dorffner, Lionel 
  
Murad III (1574-1535). Murad III also had water urns of the Hellenistic period (300. BC) brought to the mosque from 
Bergama. The pulpit (minber) and preacher's pew (muezzin mahfili) were added to the interior during the reign of 
Murad IV. In 1739, Sultan Mahmud I built a library and a primary school (mekteh-i sibyan) in the south. In 1850, 
Sultan Abdulmecit added the present day Imperial Pew. During his reign (1833-1861), important repairs were entrusted 
to the Swiss architect Gaspare Fossati. He removed the plaster covering the mosaics and then replastered them. He 
decorated these newly plastered areas with frescoes. The building was completely renovated inside and out. An 
horologion was built to the south of the structure. In 1926, the government of the new Republic of Turkey, appointed a 
technical commission to investigate the architectural and static state of the building thoroughly. According to the 
commission’s report, the foundation of the structure rested solidly on a bed of rock. Following Kemal Ataturk’s orders, 
Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum on February 1st 1935. Ataturk visited the museum a few days later, on 
February 6th 1935." Taken from: ["Focus on the World", 2000] 
  
Figure 1. A general view of Hagia Sophia 
3 RELATED WORKS 
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention concerning the 
protection of the world cultural and natural heritage has accepted Hagia Sophia by the Ninth Ordinary Session, in 
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, 2-6 December 1985 of the World Heritage Committee as a World Cultural Heritage. The 
brief description of the acceptance is as follows: “Strategically located on the Bosphorus peninsula between the Balkans 
and Anatolia, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, Istanbul has been associated with major political, religious and 
artistic events for more than two thousand years. Its masterpieces include the ancient Hippodrome of Constantine, the 
6"-century Hagia Sophia and the 16" century Suleymaniye Mosque, which are now jeopardized by overpopulation, 
industrial pollution and uncontrolled urbanization. [UNESCO, 1985] 
Nowadays the building is under investigation sponsored by UNESCO. Today there is a great restoration work, 
especially for the mosaics at the huge dome, in the building supported and controlled by the Conservation and 
Restoration Branch of Historical buildings in Istanbul of the ministry of Culture .To carry out the restoration of the 
dome there is a long time standing scaffold erected under the quarter of the dome. There are many other projects 
planned and carried out by many organizations and universities from many countries all over the world. One of the 
projects supported and realized by the Princeton University [Dunlop J., 1997] has the aim to determine the susceptibility 
of the structure, especially its large dome and arches, to collapse due to the earthquakes that often strike that part of the 
world. Another site, where information about Hagia Sophia is available is The Great Buildings Collection 
[Matthews K., 1999]. There 3D models, photographic images and architectural drawings, plus commentaries, and 
bibliographies of hundreds of buildings can be found. 
As mentioned before there are many works on Hagia Sophia for demonstration and searching purposes. Besides the 
demonstrating and searching purposes new techniques of digital applications in photogrammetry and information 
sciences open new possibilities for documentation and investigations of such kind of buildings. On one hand it gives us 
  
174 International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B5. Amsterdam 2000. 
  
  
  
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