The church of Hagia Sophia in Thessaloniki, Greece is a seventh century church that has seen and lived quite a bit of history. It has seen the pre-schism church, it was subject to the iconoclasm the eighth century, it has undergone conversion into a mosque under the Ottomans and then reconversion back into a church. But despite all of that history, what remains are the early Byzantine and Eastern Roman roots of the church, something one can see in its mosaics and especially in its use of polychrome marble revetments. (And as any regular reader of LAJ will know, the subject of Polychrome Marbles in Church Decoration has long been an interest of ours. )
This particular church took its inspiration, not to mention its name, from Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and during the iconoclastic period, its aspidal space was ornamented only by a plain cross (similar to what one can still see in the former church of Hagia Irene in Constantinople). After iconoclasm was defeated, a beautiful aspidal mosaic of the Virgin and Child was installed in the years 787-797.
The beautiful Byzantine capitals of accompanying these marble revetments are also not to be missed. These are classic examples of the development from the classic Greek and Roman capital to the later, Eastern Roman.style.
As one final point of interest, while not found in church still regrettably, the Archeological Museum of Istanbul has what is thought to be the original marble ambo of the church.
This church is beautiful and glorious now. What it must have been in its heyday in the first millennium.
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