This museum is not Ayasofya itself but a separate building: the famous Defter-i Hakani Nezareti building at Sultanahmet, where the 1,700-year history of Ayasofya is told across thirteen halls covering about 3,200 square metres.
Both the Byzantine and the Ottoman periods of the building are presented through an immersive visual and audio display using current technology, with narration available in 23 languages.
There are also four sections holding objects from the Ayasofya collection, a large part of them shown for the first time. They follow the building's changes of use in order: church, mosque, museum, and mosque again. A Byzantine cistern can also be seen through the windows on the ground floor.
One practical point is worth knowing before you go: the museum charges its own entry fee and the Museum Pass is not valid here.
When to go
- Climate
- Across İstanbul as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 6.8 °C in January to 24.7 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (99 mm) and lightest in July (22 mm). Long-term means for 1950-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
Visiting hours
- Hours
- 09:00 - 20:00
Getting there
- Access
- Take the Kabataş–Bağcılar tram line to the Sultanahmet stop.
