Turkey will make the entrance to Hagia Sophia for tourists paid

From January 15, 2024, Turkey will introduce an entrance fee for foreigners to the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Constantinople (until 2020 it was the Christian Hagia Sophia).

This was reported on October 31 by the Minister of Culture Mehmet Nuri Ersoya.

No fee will be charged to Turks who come to the service. Also, from January 15, the entrances to the mosque will change — they will be separate for religious services and for tourists.

The minister announced that the largest restoration in the history of the mosque begins (the mosque will be opened) and a mobile application is launched — visitors will be able to receive information through headphones in 16 languages using a QR code.

• The Cathedral of Saint Sophia is almost one and a half thousand years old. In 1453, after the capture of the city by the Ottomans, Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque and four minarets were built around it. Already in 1935, it was given the status of a museum. In 1985, Hagia Sophia, together with other monuments of the historical center of Istanbul, was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 2020, the status of a mosque was officially returned to the Cathedral of Saint Sophia, although the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and UNESCO opposed this.