Posted in Posted by Jules Verne

The great Hagia Sophia was finished. The great church that seemed to hang from heaven itself on a golden chain, whose domes resting on pillars gave it an airy, grand appearance, was finally finished Word spread excitedly from house to house.

The wives and mothers of the workmen bragged proudly, each one insisting that their husband or son set the last stone or carved the most beautiful window or set the altar in place. But what everyone was most excited about was the first public opening. The day of the opening everyone in Constantinople was flocking to the Hagia Sophia. In the midst of all this, one person tried to get ahead of all the others. It was me.

My name is Justin the Baker’s Apprentice. I am eighteen years old. In my younger years, I aspired to become a mason, but an accident left me with a crippled right hand and a broken dream. It had seemed that there was nothing left for me in the world, except the dough and the hot oven of my uncle’s bakery.

From childhood I had often dreamed of setting chisel and hammer to white marble and creating something beautiful that would last forever, but instead I found myself baking balls of dough that would be snatched up by the fat, greedy hands of some rich man and disappear in a single moment. A whole days work wasted. My uncle didn’t see it that way, though. He took great pride in his baked goods.

At last I arrived at the steps leading up to the church. I stood there a while studying the workmanship of the steps. It was excellent, without a flaw. Suddenly there was a noise in front of me. The great doors were turning on their hinges. It was then that I noticed that I was in front of the crowd and for a moment I had a sickening feeling of being exposed in the presence of such a great thing as this. Everyone but me fell quiet and stepped back a little as if a monster would come out of those gaping doors.

Then everyone heard it. It was faint. It was strong. It was haunting. It was beautiful. It was strange. It was amazing. Soon everyone was singing the song of praise along with the choir. Everyone was marching in time up the stairs. I ran up. The hugeness and beauty of the place hit me like a wave. I was so stunned I almost fell over. I at once recognized the types of stone used throughout the building. There was porphyry from Egypt, green marble from Thessaly, black stone from the Bosporus region, and yellow stone from Syria.

The light coming in from the windows high in the rim of the dome shone down on beautiful mosaic floors. Icons of the Christ and the Holy Mother decorated almost every inch of the walls. Scenes from the Bible were also depicted in mosaic. Walking forward a little, I found myself in the Vestibule of the Warriors where the Emperor’s bodyguards waited while he prayed.

Then turning left I passed under a picture of Mary with the Emperors and entered into the west gallery. I didn’t stop there. I went into the sanctuary. I was overawed. The sanctuary was bigger than I had even dared to imagine. The great dome overhead was covered with Icons and other religious paintings. On the far side was the apse with a picture of the Virgin with the Child.

Then, with a sinking heart, I heard my aunt’s voice.

"Justin!" she called, looking around her in a awed way. Then she spied me. "Justin," she hissed in my ear, "This is the third time you sneaked out today. You can come and gawk another day, but your uncle needs you. There is a very wealthy man at the shop with a large order. Be off now!" And with that she turned me around and gave me a stout kick from behind.

I obediently exited that marvelous place, but I had no doubt that she had been lying just to have an excuse to come and see herself. But I knew that I would never forget that first glimpse of the inside of the great Hagia Sophia.

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Jules Verne (Storyteller)