"It was for many years the largest church in the world, filled with magnificent mosaics and frescoes." is the statement accurately describes the Hagia Sophia. From the date of its development in 537 AD, and until 1453, it filled in as an Eastern Orthodox house of prayer and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople, aside from in the vicinity of 1204 and 1261, when it was changed over by the Fourth Crusaders to a Catholic church building under the Latin Empire.
