The Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople as a model for Serbian architects in recent times

Abstract

Under the influence of Russian and Austrian neo-Byzantinism, as well as increasingly extensive historiographic research, evocations of Byzantine architectural achievements appeared in Serbian architecture in the early 1870s. Their merging with the layers of the national schools of medieval masonry, adapted to the use of modern materials and methods of composition, stemmed from the uncritical identification of these two historical traditions, a view that was also present in scholarship for far too long. Regardless of its theoretical underdevelopment, the emulation of Byzantine monuments became the dominant trend in monumental architecture, with the cult of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople culminating after World War I, a period when large-scale structures were designed.