“We have taken a very important step to carry our magnificent past to the present and the future and to bring it together with our people. With the Hagia Sophia Fatih Madrasa, which we have opened today, we are giving back the city another important monument whose traces were deliberately erased,” Erdoğan said.

On the North side of Hagia Sophia, there was a madrasa built by Mehmed II. The building couldn’t survive today. However, according to the archives, the madrasa was restorated by Fossatis (Fossati Brothers) on the order of Sultan Abdulmejid. The madrasa was demolished in the Republic Era of modern Turkey. (ILKHA)