The Architecture Of Faith
A dome, a vault, a terrace open to the sky. Four places show how different traditions gave belief a physical form.
01 · Türkiye · 537
Hagia Sophia
Somewhere in the upper gallery, on a marble parapet overlooking the nave, a Viking scratched his name. The letters are runic and worn nearly smooth, but scholars can still make out part of "Halfdan." He was probably a member of the Varangian Guard, the Scandinavian mercenaries who served the Byzantine emperors, and he was probably bored.
Read the story02 · Türkiye · 1575
Selimiye Mosque
An old man stands on a building site in Edirne with a grudge. He is close to eighty. Behind him are fifty years of work and hundreds of buildings; the skyline of Istanbul is largely his. But one thing has been bothering him for most of that career: the dome of Hagia Sophia.
Read the story03 · France · 1163
Notre-Dame De Paris
In 1977, workmen digging in the courtyard of a bank in central Paris hit carved stone. They kept digging and came up with twenty-one heads, each about the size of a person's torso, each with the battered crown and stylised beard of a medieval king.
Read the story04 · Indonesia · c. 800
Borobudur
Stand at the top of Borobudur and the building has quietly stopped telling you anything. Lower down, every wall is crowded with carved ships, markets, elephants, dancers and princes. Up here, on the three round terraces, there are no pictures at all.
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