Hagia Sophia celebrates six years since reopening as a mosque

Six years have passed since Türkiye restored Hagia Sophia's status as a mosque, marking a defining moment in the country's recent religious and cultural history. The Istanbul landmark, revered for centuries as both a place of worship and a symbol of the city's layered past, returned to active use for prayer following a presidential decree issued in July 2020.

From conquest to conversion

Hagia Sophia's transformation into a mosque dates back to the conquest of Istanbul by Sultan Mehmed II on 29 May 1453, an event that ended nearly a millennium of the building's use as a church. Having served as a church for 916 years under Byzantine rule, the structure was converted into a mosque soon after the city fell, and the sultan who led the conquest went on to earn the title "Fatih," or "the Conqueror." He led the first Friday prayer inside the building on 1 June 1453, cementing its place as one of the empire's most significant religious sites for centuries to come.

Museum status and legal challenge

The site's function changed again with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the founding of the Turkish Republic. After 481 years as an active mosque, Hagia Sophia was converted into a museum under a Cabinet decision dated 24 November 1934. It would remain in that status for 86 years, until the Association for the Protection of Historical Monuments and the Environment filed a lawsuit in 2016 with Türkiye's Council of State, seeking to overturn the decision that had stripped the building of its mosque designation.

The 2020 ruling and reopening

The case was resolved on 10 July 2020, when the Council of State's 10th Chamber unanimously annulled the 1934 Cabinet decree that had defined Hagia Sophia's museum status. Crowds gathered at Hagia Sophia Square celebrated the ruling, and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a presidential decree the same day authorizing the building's return to worship. The decree transferred administration of the site to Türkiye's Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı) and formally designated it for use as a mosque, a decision published in a special edition of the Official Gazette that day. Deputy Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Celal Adan, read the presidential decree aloud in Parliament, where lawmakers responded with a prolonged standing ovation. Weeks later, on 24 July 2020, the site — now referred to as the "Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque" — held its first Friday prayer in 86 years, an event attended by President Erdoğan alongside a large gathering of officials and members of the public.