{"id":987,"date":"2022-12-22T01:07:12","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T00:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/195.201.107.226\/acoustics-and-sounds-of-the-hagia-sophia\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T00:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T22:32:23","slug":"the-sound-of-hagia-sophia-preserving-a-lost-acoustic-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ycbs.eu\/en\/the-sound-of-hagia-sophia-preserving-a-lost-acoustic-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sound of Hagia Sophia: Preserving a Lost Acoustic Heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For centuries, Hagia Sophia was one of the world\u2019s greatest places of Christian worship, renowned not only for its magnificent architecture but also for its extraordinary acoustics. As WORLDteen writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSadly, true Christian worship in the Hagia Sophia was silenced long ago. In 1453, the Ottoman Empire conquered the city of Constantinople. The Ottomans converted the Orthodox Christian cathedral into a mosque. In 2020, a presidential decree in Turkey reclassified Hagia Sophia as a mosque once again.\u201d (WORLDteen)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although its religious function has changed over time, Hagia Sophia remains one of the most remarkable acoustic spaces ever created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Unique Acoustics of Hagia Sophia<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

According to\u00a0Dr. Turgut Er\u00e7etin<\/strong>\u00a0(Turkish composer, sound researcher and former tanford University researcher), Hagia Sophia possesses one of the longest reverberation times ever measured in a historic building:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor a good speech perception, the space should be ideally able to deliver lossless information from the source to the receiver (listener). Therefore, acoustic peculiarities such as early reflections, late reverberation or noise become integral. It was already known before our research that Hagia Sophia has a long reverberation time, which can reach a peak of 12 seconds at frequencies in the range of 250\u2013500 Hz.\u201d (Dr. Turgut Er\u00e7etin)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Er\u00e7etin further explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHagia Sophia has not only long late-field reverberation but also a relatively long-lasting Early Decay Time (EDT). The reflective character of the dome and the way in which the cupola diffuses sound create a unique aural experience. We also inferred that the reflected sounds sustained by the interior generate harmonics that gradually evolve from dissonance to consonance. Moreover, clarity index measurements (C50) suggest that the interior was not designed primarily for speech.\u201d (Dr. Turgut Er\u00e7etin)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Er\u00e7etin completed his doctoral studies in composition at Stanford University. His work combines musical composition with architectural acoustics, investigating how sound is perceived within historic spaces such as Hagia Sophia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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