Architecture

Wednesday, 27 May 2026
18 facts about Hagia Sophia
18 facts about Hagia Sophia
The most significant work of Byzantine architecture
The Hagia Sophia's Temple, now an Istanbul mosque, was initially built as the Church of Divine Wisdom. It was the highest-ranking temple in the Byzant ...

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Spanish Steps
At the top of the stairs sits the 16th-century church Trinita dei Monti, part of the French Community of Emmanuel.
The church was built by order of Louis XII, King of France, who owned the land (previously, there wa ...
Balmoral Castle
Queen Elizabeth II was very private and did not share information about many of the rooms used by the royal family.
The main living room and other common areas are said to be dominated by warm greenery, and there are ...
Palace of Versailles
Even though Versailles is the largest palace complex in the world, it was cramped.
There were several thousand courtiers and servants in the palace complex at the same time. Crowded c ...
Mont Saint-Michel
In 966 monks from Saint-Wandrille came to the island and founded a new Benedictine abbey there - the Abbey of SaintWandrille de Fontenelle.
In 1256 and 1264, King Louis IX of France made pilgrimages to the abbey. Numerous pilgrims also came there, and in order to take proper care of them, a town was built at the foot of the sanctuary.
Statue of Liberty
The head of the Statue was exhibited at the Third World Exhibition in Paris on June 30, 1878, at the Palais Trocadéro.
Other completed parts of the Statue were exhibited on the Champ de Mars.
Windsor Castle
The initial wooden castle consisted of a tower and an outer ward protected by a small wall, which was located on a cliff rising 30 m above the river.
A second wooden outer ward was also built, followed by the outer ward from the west. It created the basic shape of the modern castle.
Spanish Steps
At the southern end of Spanish Square is the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide, seat of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The palace was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who created the main façade; the rest of the buildi ...
Krak des Chevaliers
The fortress was captured in 1099 by the troops of Raymond, Count of Toulouse, a very religious man who always wanted to die in the Holy Land.
When the pope called for a crusade, he was the first to accept the call and, at the head of a large ...
Hagia Sophia
Justinian I the Great spared no expense in furnishing the church. Porphyry and marble were used to decorate the temple and as wall and pillar coverings.
Mainly green marble was used for the columns. Many elements were decorated with gold, silver, ivory ...
Göbekli Tepe
Gobekli Tepe was built during the Neolithic period. Megalithic structures there are the oldest known to archeology.
Hunter-gatherer people constructed all the enormous objects at Gobekli Tepe. Such engineering required technical and organizational skills that were unusual at the time.