ISTANBUL. In the famous Constantinople Church of St. Sophia, restorers, cleaning 6-7 layers of the latest plaster under the dome, found a unique and previously unknown mosaic angel face. About this with reference to the daily Turkish newspaper “Hürriyet” the German website of Catholic news reports.
Experts note the very good condition of the mosaic picture of Seraphim, whose dimensions are one meter and a half.
Scientists have yet to establish the time of mosaic production: it is not yet clear whether it dates from the 9th century (the time when the iconographic images destroyed during the iconoclasm were restored in the church) or the XIV century (a time when the temple was rebuilt with funds sent from the Moscow Grand Duchy after the severe damage caused by the earthquake).
After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 and the conversion of the church of St. Sophia into a mosque, its iconographic images (frescoes and mosaics) were barbarously smeared with lime. The domed mosaics of the angels are preserved, but the faces of the Seraphim were destroyed – fortunately, as it turned out now, not completely.