Entrance to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul will be paid for foreigners

The entrance to the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul will be paid for foreign tourists from January 15, 2024. This was announced today by the Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.

In July 2020, the Turkish State Council annulled the decision of 1934 to turn the Hagia Sophia into a museum. Immediately after that, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he had signed a decree on the transformation of Hagia Sophia into a mosque and the beginning of Muslim services there. The first prayer was performed on July 24, 2020.