query: architectural_style hagia sophia
supports: Hagia Sophia (from the ), "Holy Wisdom"; or "Sancta Sapientia") was a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum (Ayasofya Müzesi) in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its construction in 537 AD, and until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted by the Fourth Crusaders to a Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was later converted into an Ottoman mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935. Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture". It remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Later Roman or Eastern Roman Empire. Byzantine architecture was mostly influenced by Roman and Greek architecture and later Sassanian and Islamic influences to an extent. This terminology is used by modern historians to designate the medieval Roman Empire as it evolved as a distinct artistic and cultural entity centered on the new capital of Constantinople rather than the city of Rome and environs. The empire endured for more than a millennium, dramatically influencing Medieval architecture throughout Europe and the Near East, and becoming the primary progenitor of the Renaissance and Ottoman architectural traditions that followed its collapse. Aya Sofya also known as Hagia Sophia ( Greek :   , `` Holy Wisdom '' ) is a Byzantine - era church building in Nicaea ( now Iznik ) in Turkey . The church of Hagia Sophia was built by Justinian I in the middle of the city in the 6th century . It was modelled after the larger Hagia Sophia in Constantinople , and it was in this building that the Second Council of Nicaea met in 787 to end the first period of Byzantine Iconoclasm . It was converted to a mosque after the fall of the city to the Ottoman Turks in 1337 , and functioned as such until it was converted into a museum in 1935 . Since November 2011 , it again functions as a mosque .
candidates: byzantine architecture medieval architecture
answer: byzantine architecture