Istanbul

New rules for visitors at Istanbul’s landmark Hagia Sophia mosque

It was a project close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s heart – but also one that was met with international criticism.

In the summer of 2020, Erdoğan converted Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, once built as a church, from a museum back into a mosque.

At the time, Erdoğan reassured the public that entrance fees would be abolished and that the cultural monument was open to all – Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

New rules for visitors at Istanbul's landmark Hagia Sophia mosque 2

From January 15, there will now be another major change: Entry to the Hagia Sophia is to be limited and visitors will have to pay again.

Turkey’s Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy hopes that this will lead to better coexistence between religious and tourist visitors. The latter inevitably make noise and disturb the peace and prayer, Ersoy said recently.

Worshippers and tourists kept separate

Until now, tourists and worshippers have been allowed to enter the interior of the Hagia Sophia together, with barriers and signposts keeping a certain distance.

From mid-January onwards, however, worshippers and visitors will be channelled through different entrances. While worshippers can use the previous entrances, tourists will be guided through a gallery on the upper floor.

According to Ersoy, tour guides will no longer be allowed to accompany visitors through the corridors. Headphones will be used instead.

“Our priority there is prayer,”Ersoy said. However, the building is also a world cultural heritage site and must therefore remain open to visitors from all over the world, he noted.

Zeliha Duman, a 29-year-old who travelled back to Istanbul from Germany to see the Hagia Sophia once it was converted into a mosque, says she finds it “breathtaking”.

“As long as admission is not prohibitively expensive, I think it’s fine,” she says, welcoming the new regulations. “Why shouldn’t Turkey and the government benefit from it?” The money could be channelled into the preservation of further religious places .

A key site for Christians and Muslims

The Hagia Sophia has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of Istanbul’s historic centre since 1985 and has an eventful history.

Built by Emperor Justinian, the Hagia Sophia was the largest place of worship in Christendom for almost a millennium. It was the main church of the Byzantine Empire. From the 7th century onwards, emperors were crowned there.

After the conquest of Constantinople (now Istanbul) by the Ottomans in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. By order of the Turkish republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the building became a museum in 1934 until the summer of 2020.

Like St Peter’s Basilica for Catholics, the Hagia Sophia is also an important symbol for Orthodox Christians around the world.

Following its conversion into a mosque, criticism therefore came primarily from the Greek Orthodox Church. UNESCO also criticised the fact that the decision had been made without consultation.

For Erdoğan, on the other hand, the site’s rededication as a mosque was a “childhood dream”, as he himself said but also a concession to religious voters. A few external changes were made at the time, for example a green carpet was laid over the marble floor.

Millions of annual visitors

All of this has obviously not detracted from the monument’s popularity, it must be said. According to official figures, around 13.6 million people visited the Hagia Sophia in 2022, and not just tourists from Europe.

The number of visitors from Indonesia in particular has increased, the imam of the Hagia Sophia, Bünyamin Topuoglu, told the state news agency Anadolu in 2023. Believers often visit Istanbul and the Hagia Sophia before their pilgrimage to Mecca.

The exact entrance fee is yet to be determined. In any case, minister Ersoy says the revenue will be spent on cultural assets for excavations or the preservation of landmarks like the Hagia Sophia.

Source: yahoo

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