Hagia Sophia … again?

Jan Bear gives a concise history of the Great Church of Holy Wisdom along with notice of a petition that many of you may have seen floating ’round the Net.

She’s right, a visit to this site is worthy (for the pics alone).

The pic to the left is of domes, semidomes, and exedras.

Here’s a quote from her site:

At the height of its use as the preeminent church of Byzantine Christianity — indeed, at the time, of the entire world — 600 people served liturgical functions: 80 priests, 150 deacons, 40 deaconesses, 60 subdeacons, 160 readers, 25 chanters and 75 doorkeepers.

Its beauty is what so impressed the emissaries of Prince Vladimir of Kiev that he chose Eastern Christianity for his kingdom, engendering 1,000 years of Russian Christianity and the spiritual and cultural legacy that has entailed.

More H E R E.