Hagia Sophia

Visiting this amazing sacred space was an overwhelming experience – a Christian Church for 1000 years, a Muslim Mosque for 500, and now a Museum.  The building has had extensive restoration going on for the past 17 years with heavy scaffolding inside, but fortunately for us, most of it was removed in February this year, affording a view perhaps not seen by many past visitors.  For me, the mosaic work here is far superior to Topkapi as it requires far more skill to arrange the tiny tesserae (pieces) into exquisite scenes than it does to garnish a wall with 1 ft square tiles.  Linz had always wanted to see this significant medieval site with its meeting of Byzantine & Islamic cultures and it certainly lived up to its reputation.