Hagia Sophia Damaged in Earthquake

1422

A major earthquake struck Constantinople, damaging the eastern half of Hagia Sophia and collapsing portions of its ancient supporting buttresses, requiring extensive and expensive repairs the imperial treasury could barely fund. The cathedral that had stood since Justinian's day in the sixth century was aging alongside the empire that had built it, both structures crumbling at their foundations. Within three decades, Ottoman masons rather than Byzantine ones would be maintaining its walls.