But the latest renovation aims not only to restore the wonders of the 1,488-year gem, but to ensure it survives the next earthquake to hit the ancient city.
As visitors get closer however, they see scaffolding covering its eastern facade and one of the minarets.
Hagia Sophia, a World Heritage Site and Turkey’s most visited landmark, “constantly has problems”, Hasan Firat Diker, an architecture professor working on the restoration, told AFP.
'Global' makeover
When it was first completed in AD 537, on the same spot where previous churches had stood, the Hagia Sophia became known as a shining example of the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, which ruled the city known as Constantinople at the time.
In 1935, Mustafa Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey who forcibly remade the country into a secular one, turned the building into a museum.
Next big quake
Like many buildings in the city of 16 million, which lies just kilometres from an active seismic fault line, Hagia Sophia does not meet building earthquake standards.
So the main goal of the restoration under way is to “reinforce the building against the next big earthquake” so that the ancient structure “survives the event with the least damage possible,“ said Ahmet Gulec, a member of the scientific committee supervising the works.
The interior is for now free of any scaffolding. But eventually four huge pillars will be erected inside to support a platform from where specialists will restore the dome's paintings and mosaics.
“It’s magic,“ chimed in her friend, Elias Erduran, from the Dominican Republic.
Hagia Sophia saw 7.7 million visitors stream through its spacious interior last year.
Officials hope the inside pillars will not deter visitors from coming during the works, which are expected to last for several years. Officials have not said how much the renovation is expected to cost.
And even if some visitors are disappointed not to have witnessed the building in all its glory, the important thing “is that one day my children will also be able to admire Saint Sophia,“ said Yana Galitskaya, a 35-year-old visitor from Russia.
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