Pilgrims report the inaccessibility of viewing Christian mosaics at the Hagia Sophia (Hagia Sophia) in Istanbul, Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, deputy chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate, told RIA Novosti.

“Information about whether it is now possible to view the Byzantine mosaics depicting Christ, the Mother of God and the saints are contradictory. During prayer, they are curtained. But, according to reports of a number of tourists and pilgrims, at other times Christian sacred images remain inaccessible for inspection. no more to see this wondrous temple through the eyes of the ambassadors of St. Prince Vladimir, who returned from it to Kiev with the words: “We do not know where we were, in heaven or on earth,” said the priest.