The temple is beautiful, with unusual architecture and rich history. One of the main attractions of Thessaloniki.
The temple was built in the VIII century.
For almost 400 years (from the beginning of the XVI to the beginning of the XX centuries) it was used by the Turks as a mosque.
It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The Orthodox Church of St. Sophia in Thessaloniki, built in the middle of the seventh century, has undergone in its more than a thousand-year history, and the test of the Crusader invasion, in 1204, thus becoming a Catholic cathedral for 220 years, and the Ottoman conquest, and the fire of 1890 and the devastating earthquake of 1978. The Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque with the assistance of Ibrahim Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, during the reign of Sultan Suleiman the First, also known as Suleiman the Magnificent. Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha was of Greek origin, was the husband of Hatice Sultan, the sister of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. In 1913, St. Sophia Cathedral became an Orthodox church again. In 1981, during the restoration of the temple, which lasted 20 years, the remains of Archbishop Basil of Thessaloniki, who was buried in the temple in the tenth century, were found. The temple is a world-class value, both in religious terms, and in historical and architectural and in the field of mosaic art of the Byzantine period. In 1988, it was included in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.