Executed circa 1849, this sweeping 360-degree view of Constantinople from the balcony of one of the minarets of the Haghia Sofia by Giuseppe Fossati, younger brother of the more famous Gaspare (1809-1883), served as a study for the architect brothers' album of 25 lithographs, published by Colnaghi in 1852, celebrating their recent restoration of that great mosque. Entitled Aya Sofia - Constantinople - as recently restored by order of H.M. the Sultan Abdul Medjid - from the original drawings by Chevalier Gaspard Fossati, the album included views of the outside, inside, and from the mosque. The original album of drawings which Gaspare and Giuseppe worked on together, from which the lithographs were engraved by Louis Haghe, is now lost. It included four views copied faithfully from the present work, each representing one quarter of the panorama. These were engraved as plates 20, 21, 22, and 23 in the published album (figs. 1-4).

The panorama takes in all the landmarks of the Old City, from the shore of the Sea of Marmara on the left to the shores of the Bosphorus and Golden Horn on the right. From left to right can be seen: the old Darülfünun (university) building founded by Sultan Abdülmecid and destroyed by fire in 1933; the Hippodrome; the Sultanahmet Mosque; Galata on the far shore of the Golden Horn; the Imarethane hospice; the first gate of the Topkapı Palace; the Haghia Irina Church; the second gate of the Topkapı Palace; the Fountain of Ahmed III ; and Karaköy on the far shore of the Bosphorus.
The Fossati brothers were from a notable family of artisans from the Ticino in Switzerland. Both studied architecture at the Brera Academy in Milan. In 1833 Gaspare was apprenticed to the Italian architectural practice of Luigi Rusca in Moscow, where he came to the attention of Nicholas I who invited him to draw up plans for the new Russian Embassy in Constantinople. He arrived in Istanbul in 1837, and two years later called on his younger brother to assist him on the Russian Embassy project. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration between the brothers in the Ottoman capital.
It is said that the brothers completed more than fifty architectural projects in Istanbul, including the Bekirağa Bölüğü hospital and the Church of Peter and Paul in Taksim (both in 1841-43), Darülfünun University (1845-46), as well as the Dutch (1854), Spanish (1854) and Persian (1856) Embassies. However, their most important commission was the renovation of the Haghia Sofia by order of Sultan Abdülmecid. The project employed more than 800 workers and took two years to complete (1847-49), winning them considerable fame and honour.