Editing Hagia Sophia (section)

===Church of Constantius II===
[[File:Constantinople imperial district.png|thumb|right|upright=1.35|Map of the administrative heart of Constantinople. The Hagia Sophia and the structures of the [[Great Palace]] are shown in their approximate position as derived from literary sources. Surviving structures are in black.]]

The first church on the site was known as the {{Langx|la|Magna Ecclesia|label=none}} ({{Langx|grc|Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία |translit=Megálē Ekklēsíā|label=none|lit=Great Church}})<ref name="mw84">Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 84.</ref><ref name="Great Church">{{cite web |url=http://www.virtualworldheritage.org/papers/3181_976-Virtual_Hagia_Sophia.pdf |title=Virtual Hagia Sophia: Restitution, Visualization and Virtual Life Simulation |access-date=3 July 2007 |author1=Alessandro E. Foni |author2=George Papagiannakis |author3=Nadia Magnentat-Thalmann |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070709194035/http://www.virtualworldheritage.org/papers/3181_976-Virtual_Hagia_Sophia.pdf <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=9 July 2007}}</ref> because of its size compared to the sizes of the contemporary churches in the city.<ref name="ja4712" /> According to the ''[[Chronicon Paschale]]'', the church was [[consecrated]] on 15 February 360, during the reign of the emperor [[Constantius II]] ({{Reign|337|361}}) by the [[Arianism|Arian]] bishop [[Eudoxius of Antioch]].<ref name="ja472">Janin (1953), p. 472.</ref><ref name="Dark-2019c">{{Cite book |last1=Dark |first1=Ken R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TU7lswEACAAJ |title=Hagia Sophia in Context: An Archaeological Re-examination of the Cathedral of Byzantine Constantinople |last2=Kostenec |first2=Jan |publisher=Oxbow Books |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-78925-030-5 |location=Oxford |pages=11–12 |language=en}}</ref> It was built next to the area where the [[Great Palace of Constantinople|Great Palace]] was being developed. According to the 5th-century ecclesiastical historian [[Socrates of Constantinople]], the emperor Constantius had {{circa|346}} "constructed the Great Church alongside that called Irene which because it was too small, the emperor's father [Constantine] had enlarged and beautified".<ref name="Mainstone-1997">{{Cite book |last=Mainstone |first=Rowland J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=buQRK64RlPgC |title=Hagia Sophia: Architecture, Structure and Liturgy of Justinian's Great Church |publisher=Thames and Hudson |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-500-27945-8 |location=London |pages=131 |language=en|orig-year=1988}}</ref><ref name="ja472" /> A tradition which is not older than the 7th or 8th century reports that the edifice was built by Constantius' father, [[Constantine I|Constantine the Great]] ({{Reign|306|337}}).<ref name="ja472" /> [[Hesychius of Miletus]] wrote that Constantine built Hagia Sophia with a wooden roof and removed 427 (mostly pagan) statues from the site.<ref>''[[Patria of Constantinople]]''</ref> The 12th-century chronicler [[Joannes Zonaras]] reconciles the two opinions, writing that Constantius had repaired the edifice consecrated by [[Eusebius of Nicomedia]], after it had collapsed.<ref name="ja472" /> Since Eusebius was the [[bishop]] of Constantinople from 339 to 341, and Constantine died in 337, it seems that the first church was erected by Constantius.<ref name="ja472" />

The nearby [[Hagia Irene]] ("Holy Peace") church was completed earlier and served as cathedral until the Great Church was completed. Besides Hagia Irene, there is no record of major churches in the city-centre before the late 4th century.<ref name="Dark-2019c" /> Rowland Mainstone argued the 4th-century church was not yet known as Hagia Sophia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mainstone |first=Rowland J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=buQRK64RlPgC |title=Hagia Sophia: Architecture, Structure and Liturgy of Justinian's Great Church |publisher=Thames and Hudson |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-500-27945-8 |location=London |page=132 |language=en|orig-year=1988}}</ref>

The church is known to have had a timber roof, curtains, columns, and an entrance that faced west.<ref name="Dark-2019c" /> It likely had a [[narthex]] and is described as being shaped like a [[Roman circus]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mainstone |first=Rowland J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=buQRK64RlPgC |title=Hagia Sophia: Architecture, Structure and Liturgy of Justinian's Great Church |publisher=Thames and Hudson |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-500-27945-8 |location=London |pages=137 |language=en|orig-year=1988}}</ref> This may mean that it had a U-shaped plan like the basilicas of [[Santi Marcellino e Pietro al Laterano|San Marcellino e Pietro]] and [[Sant'Agnese fuori le mura]] in [[Rome]].<ref name="Dark-2019c" /> However, it may also have been a more conventional three-, four-, or five-aisled basilica, perhaps resembling the original [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre]] in [[Jerusalem]] or the [[Church of the Nativity]] in [[Bethlehem]].<ref name="Dark-2019c" /> The building was likely preceded by an [[atrium (architecture)|atrium]], as in the later churches on the site.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ahmad |first=Tufail |title=Hagia Sophia History {{!}} Explore and Learn About This Monument |url=https://hagiasophiatickets.com/history |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=Hagia Sophia Tickets |language=en}}</ref>

According to [[Ken Dark]] and Jan Kostenec, a further remnant of the 4th century basilica may exist in a wall of alternating brick and stone banded masonry immediately to the west of the Justinianic church.<ref name="Dark-2019d" /> The top part of the wall is constructed with bricks stamped with brick-stamps dating from the 5th century, but the lower part is of constructed with bricks typical of the 4th century.<ref name="Dark-2019d" /> This wall was probably part of the [[propylaeum]] at the west front of both the Constantinian and Theodosian Great Churches.<ref name="Dark-2019d" />

The building was accompanied by a [[baptistery]] and a ''[[skeuophylakion]]''.<ref name="Dark-2019c" /> A [[hypogeum]], perhaps with an [[martyrium]] above it, was discovered before 1946, and the remnants of a brick wall with traces of marble revetment were identified in 2004.<ref name="Dark-2019d">{{Cite book |last1=Dark |first1=Ken R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TU7lswEACAAJ |title=Hagia Sophia in Context: An Archaeological Re-examination of the Cathedral of Byzantine Constantinople |last2=Kostenec |first2=Jan |publisher=Oxbow Books |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-78925-030-5 |location=Oxford |pages=12–15 |language=en}}</ref> The hypogeum was a tomb which may have been part of the 4th-century church or may have been from the pre-Constantinian city of [[Byzantium]].<ref name="Dark-2019d" /> The ''skeuophylakion'' is said by [[Palladius of Galatia|Palladius]] to have had a circular floor plan, and since some U-shaped basilicas in Rome were funerary churches with attached circular mausolea (the [[Mausoleum of Constantina]] and the [[Mausoleum of Helena]]), it is possible it originally had a funerary function, though by 405 its use had changed.<ref name="Dark-2019d" /> A later account credited a woman called Anna with donating the land on which the church was built in return for the right to be buried there.<ref name="Dark-2019d" />

Excavations on the western side of the site of the first church under the propylaeum wall reveal that the first church was built atop a road about {{cvt|8|m|ft}} wide.<ref name="Dark-2019d" /> According to early accounts, the first Hagia Sophia was built on the site of an ancient pagan temple,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |entry=Hagia Sophia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hagia-Sophia |quote=The original church on the site of the Hagia Sophia is said to have been ordered to be built by Constantine I in 325 on the foundations of a pagan temple. |title=Hagia Sophia &#124; History, Facts, & Significance|date=14 August 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |entry=Hagia Sophia (Constantinople) |author=Ljudmila Djukic |title=The Byzantine Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia |date=9 September 2019 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q6KsDwAAQBAJ&q=%22hagia+sophia%22+%22pagan+temple%22&pg=RA1-PA195 |page=195 |volume=2 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=978-1-4408-5147-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Sharon La Boda |title=International Dictionary of Historic Places: Southern Europe |year=1994 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74JI2UlcU8AC&q=%22hagia+sophia%22+%22pagan+temple%22&pg=PA343 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |page=343 |isbn=978-1-884964-02-2}}</ref> although there are no artefacts to confirm this.<ref name="Ellington" />

The Patriarch of Constantinople [[John Chrysostom]] came into a conflict with Empress [[Aelia Eudoxia]], wife of the emperor [[Arcadius]] ({{Reign|383|408}}), and was sent into exile on 20 June 404. During the subsequent riots, this first church was largely burnt down.<ref name="ja472" /> Palladius noted that the 4th-century ''skeuophylakion'' survived the fire.<ref name="Dark-2019e">{{Cite book |last1=Dark |first1=Ken R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TU7lswEACAAJ |title=Hagia Sophia in Context: An Archaeological Re-examination of the Cathedral of Byzantine Constantinople |last2=Kostenec |first2=Jan |publisher=Oxbow Books |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-78925-030-5 |location=Oxford |pages=15–20 |language=en}}</ref> According to Dark and Kostenec, the fire may only have affected the main basilica, leaving the ancillary buildings intact.<ref name="Dark-2019e" />