- Feb 5, 2002
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Boston-born Thomas Whittemore, a friend of Turkish reformer Atatürk, uncovered the gems that had been hidden for 500 years.
If Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia gets turned into a mosque, as many expect it will, its precious Byzantine mosaic icons are likely to be covered up during Muslim prayers.The mosaics were plastered over for centuries when the former cathedral of the Church of Constantinople served as a place of Muslim worship.
On July 10, in an address to the nation, Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced that Hagia Sophia would be reopened for Muslim worship on July 24. The Turkish Council of State annulled the decree of November 24, 1934, to turn the building into a museum.
For nearly a century, tourists and pilgrims visiting Hagia Sophia have been wowed by the architecture of the 6th-century church, but also the timeless beauty of its mosaics.
Those who have gazed on the icons have an American to thank. Thomas Whittemore, a Massachusetts native who founded the Byzantine Institute, an organization that specialized in the study, restoration, and conservation of Byzantine art and architecture, undertook the restoration and conservation project at Hagia Sophia in December 1931.
Four years later, the cathedral-turned-mosque reopened as a museum.
According to the website of Dumbarton Oaks, a research institute of Harvard University supporting scholarship in Byzantine and Pre-Columbian studies, Whittemore began his career as an English professor at Tufts. But he soon developed an interest in antiquity. After studying architecture at the Sorbonne, he toured England, Italy, Russia, Bulgaria, and Germany. He later got involved in archaeology in Egypt.
While working with the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) in the early 1910s, Whittemore also traveled extensively throughout Europe. After the First World War broke out in 1914, he witnessed destruction and upheaval. In Paris, he joined the Red Cross just months after the fighting began and devoted himself entirely to relief work for the remainder of the war. This work took him as far as Bulgaria and Russia.
Continued below.
The American who restored the priceless mosaics of Hagia Sophia
If Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia gets turned into a mosque, as many expect it will, its precious Byzantine mosaic icons are likely to be covered up during Muslim prayers.The mosaics were plastered over for centuries when the former cathedral of the Church of Constantinople served as a place of Muslim worship.
On July 10, in an address to the nation, Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced that Hagia Sophia would be reopened for Muslim worship on July 24. The Turkish Council of State annulled the decree of November 24, 1934, to turn the building into a museum.
For nearly a century, tourists and pilgrims visiting Hagia Sophia have been wowed by the architecture of the 6th-century church, but also the timeless beauty of its mosaics.
Those who have gazed on the icons have an American to thank. Thomas Whittemore, a Massachusetts native who founded the Byzantine Institute, an organization that specialized in the study, restoration, and conservation of Byzantine art and architecture, undertook the restoration and conservation project at Hagia Sophia in December 1931.
Four years later, the cathedral-turned-mosque reopened as a museum.
According to the website of Dumbarton Oaks, a research institute of Harvard University supporting scholarship in Byzantine and Pre-Columbian studies, Whittemore began his career as an English professor at Tufts. But he soon developed an interest in antiquity. After studying architecture at the Sorbonne, he toured England, Italy, Russia, Bulgaria, and Germany. He later got involved in archaeology in Egypt.
While working with the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) in the early 1910s, Whittemore also traveled extensively throughout Europe. After the First World War broke out in 1914, he witnessed destruction and upheaval. In Paris, he joined the Red Cross just months after the fighting began and devoted himself entirely to relief work for the remainder of the war. This work took him as far as Bulgaria and Russia.
Continued below.
The American who restored the priceless mosaics of Hagia Sophia
