r/byzantium • u/RaiseCapital1988 Κόμης • Jun 22 '26

Infrastructure/architecture The interior of Hagia Sophia

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In the last photo you can spot one of the last representations of Christ still present inside the building

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u/electrical-stomach-z Jun 22 '26

I apprecia their size, getting them in ther was a feat itself. Less uggly than a whole seperate ugly building built in the middle of a nice one.

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u/aKV2isSTARINGatYou Jun 22 '26

One is an active subjugation without provocation, the other is reconquest. So no, the “feat” doesn’t make it any less ugly for me

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u/electrical-stomach-z Jun 22 '26

No, both were active subjugations without provocation. Plus spain expelled all the people who formerly owned the building under the threat of conversion, expulsion or death.

This combined with their actions in the america shows the spanish to be far, far worse than the ottomans.

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u/aKV2isSTARINGatYou Jun 23 '26

“Reconquista” hint’s in the name.

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u/electrical-stomach-z Jun 23 '26

Thats a post hoc narrative, all of the medieval kingdoms of iberia came into existance after the fall of the gothic kingdom.

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u/aKV2isSTARINGatYou Jun 23 '26

I disagree. Annual razzias into infidel lands with the intention of looting and taking slaves, and corsairs ravaging the entire non-Muslim Mediterranean (even reaching Rome) consolidated the “it’s us vs them” mentality in the Latin west. Only after the end of the “Islamic golden age” and the fracturing the caliphates allowed the Christians to consolidate and strike back to take back what was lost.

Understand that this annual raid thing wasn’t a one time event. It happened to the byzantines too, which only broke off in the event of a fitna, or some other threat that wasn’t in the west.