Evening star., 1935-02-17


find Times Square, the Empire
State Building or Wall Street.
In London it's Westminster
Abbey ST Pauls and the British
Museum. In Paris it's the Champs Eysees, the
Tour Effe and Notre Dame.
But in Istanbul all travellers hasten with one
accord to single outstanding monument whose
interest and Importance overtowers all else.
The mosque of Santa Sophia.
And this year 1885 Santa Sophia will have
special attraction for lovers of noble and an
cent architecture since it marks the 14OOth
anniversary of the laying of the corner stone
Of this most historic of all churches.
Three times I've visited Istanbul-1919 1881,
and now in l935-and each time I've found
my way as soon as possible, to this miraculous
building. And each time in its presence have
been spellbound anew with the wonder and
the spaendor of the past
And in its presence more than in the pres
ence Of any other temple on earth have the
feeling that the centuries are looking down
upon me, for this basca has beer in constant
and uninterrupted use a place of worship
since the year 537. 1t has something of the
quality OF the Pyramids. Just as these titanic
tombs have gaZed upon the procession OF
Egypts millenniums, has Santa Sophia been
the center OF centuries of drama, watching
over an imperial city which, next to Rome
longest shaped the destiny of the world.
- undergraduate, I was intensely interested
In this mother of all churches. Pictures Of
It had seen all my life. With its epic story
I was thoroughly familiar. I knew that
through its doors the ebb and flow of conquest
the emperors and the captains that ruled the
earth, has passed for thousand years before
Michelangelo raised the dome of St Peters
above the Eternal City.
535 A. D-France and England were still in
thelr darkest and most savage ages Rome had
decayed, but was still classic city. Mohammed
the Prophet had not been born But at that
time Byzantium had become the center of
the civilized world and the heir to all the
culture and knowledge bequeathed to her by
Greece and Rome.
With his capital already so resplendent
JuStlnian, the Christian emperor felt that he
should further distinguish it by building place
OF Christian worship greater and more beautiful
IMAM the pagans ever dreamed of. And so this
glant-spirited emperor commanded his archi-
tectS 70 erect monster church according to
plans his own soaring imagination had visioned
IL was his lordly gesture, about 534 that
swept away the acres of houses standing where
he wished his great basilica to rise It was
he who stopped all other works to marshal
10000 builders under his authority who secured
the empire for extravagant materials, who
plllaged the colossal marble columns from the
iemple OF Diana at Ephesus, ransacked Baalbek
1or Its riches and levied from Athens, Delphi
and Rome Shiploads of treasures.
What matter If building costs scared into
prodlglous hgures? JuStinian not the man
10 pe d1Smayed. He merely seized the salaries
OF all the state officials, closed the schools and
forced the army to fight without pay thus
providing forty thousand pounds Of silver for
the altar piece and half a million pearls for the
Sanctuary's curtain. Extortion, taxation tor.
ture, robbery, played their part in the creation
OF this supreme monument to the divine wisdom
of God.
Justinian's temple stood, in 537 at last COM
pete, faced inside with marble from a hundred
lands, rooted with the help of the dark and
secret powers) by one miraculous, floating dome
ihS was the emperors triumphant hour Sur
rounded by his glittering court, his generals and
ms ministers, accompanied by thousand
priests and vast orchestra and choir Justinian
mounted to the silver altar and cried out for
the multitudes to hear, "Oh Solomon I have
surpassed thee!"
COR GIG years Justinians temple served as a
Christian church. Thousands upon thou
SANDS came from every corner of the civilized
world TO behold this wonder of wonders Other
churches rose by hundreds, but not one of them
even fainty challenged the basilica in size and
Inagnncence. chronicler passing through
byzantium with the Crusaders exclaimed about
the church-after it had already stood 600 years
1t Is the terrestrial paradise, the second
armament the throne of the glory of God It
rises TO the heavens 1t is the marvel of the
earth"
That was in 1880, when Byzantium was still
the largest and most civilized city west of
China
But doom, in the form of Mohammedan