'the Holy Wisdom'; Ancient Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, romanized: Hagía Sophía; Turkish: Ayasofya) in İznik (Nicaea) in Bursa Province, Turkey, was built as a Byzantine-era basilican church.

[4][5] The Justinian-era church was destroyed by an earthquake in the 11th century and the present structure was erected around 1065 over the ruins of the older one.

[2] The current basilican structure, much of which dates to the 1065 reconstruction of the church, consists of a central nave with two side aisles.

Prior to its remodelling under the Ottomans, the church had two rows of triple arcades on columns that carried a clerestory wall with five windows.

[8] The architect Mimar Sinan was also commissioned around this time to design decorations to adorn the walls of the mosque.