Turkey has begun what a minister has said is the “largest and most comprehensive” restoration and reinforcement effort on the dome of Hagia Sophia, the historic monument whose 2020 reconversion into a mosque sparked international criticism.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy announced the start of the restoration on Monday in a post on X, saying the project will continue without interrupting religious services at the site.
“The main dome is now undergoing the largest and most extensive restoration in its 1,486-year history,” Ersoy said. “It will be reinforced to withstand earthquakes while preserving the building’s original structure with great care.”
In February 2023, 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck southern Turkey, destroying or damaging hundreds of thousands of buildings and leaving more than 53,000 people dead. While İstanbul was not impacted, the devastation in southern Turkey heightened fears of a similar earthquake, with experts citing the city’s proximity to fault lines and estimating that the city is likely to be hit by a powerful earthquake in the near future.
The minister added that restoration will take place on the dome’s exterior to avoid damaging the interior mosaics and that the lead coverings will be removed, repaired or replaced as necessary.
Tarihe sahip çıkıyoruz, Ayasofya’yı geleceğe taşıyoruz!
1486 yıllık Ayasofya-i Kebir Camii Şerifi’nde, ibadete ara vermeden restorasyon ve güçlendirme çalışmalarımızı sürdürüyoruz. Bu çalışmaların bir kısmını tamamladık, kalan bölümleri ise dikkatle yürütüyoruz.
Bu süreçte,… pic.twitter.com/YIcwaN2eW6
— Mehmet Nuri Ersoy (@MehmetNuriErsoy) April 14, 2025
A temporary steel structure and special protective canopy will be installed over the dome to shield it from weather and safeguard the mosaics during the restoration, he said, adding that a 43.5-meter-high steel platform will also be erected atop four main columns to allow restoration and worship to continue simultaneously.
“Working under the principle that ‘Worship will continue, history will be preserved,’ we will both protect and sustain Hagia Sophia,” Ersoy said.
Originally constructed in the sixth century as a cathedral under Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. It served as a museum from 1935 until 2020, when a Turkish court annulled its museum status and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reinstated it as a mosque, a move that drew condemnation from UNESCO and several Western governments.
Following its conversion into a mosque, there were frequent claims about the damage being sustained by the historic building, with concerns about the preservation of the architectural and artistic treasures inside the structure.
Turkish government officials dismissed the comments as “biased and political.“