The Hagia Sophia

For centuries its construction was one of the greatest building secrets of mankind. Now the German architectural historian Prof. Volker Hoffmann has solved the riddle of the eighth wonder of the world. And in doing so discovered one of the most dazzling empresses of late antiquity: Theodora of Byzantium, and the story of a great love. The love of a former courtesan who secured power and influence through instinct, intelligence and eroticism, and of an emperor who gave himself to her entirely.

Hoffmann’s discoveries not only decode the birth of the Hagia Sophia, they also tell of a fascinating imperial couple who with their love united Orient and Occident in what was once the largest church in Christendom. They tell of a woman whose rise at the side of Emperor Justinian ranks among the most fascinating biographies of antiquity. Of an empress who made history, on the Bosporus, where East and West meet. Where Europe began to grow.