Civ 6 Wonder Placement Guide

Hagia Sophia

Required neighbors are shown on the map — the remaining tiles can be anything.

Placement requirements

Must be built on: Desert, Grassland, Plains, Snow, Tundra
Must be adjacent to: Holy Site
Requires a founded religion

Unlock & cost

Technology: Buttress
Production cost: 710

Wonders that compete for the same tiles

From the placement data: these wonders share a placement requirement with Hagia Sophia. A city meant to hold both needs a separate qualifying tile for each.

Kotoku-in — both next to a Holy Site
Mahabodhi Temple — both next to a Holy Site
Meenakshi Temple — both next to a Holy Site

Is it worth building?

Extra charges for missionaries and apostles — your whole religious corps works harder for the same faith. A core religious-victory wonder; without a religion it is architecture.

Placement & timing tips

Holy Site adjacency in your faith capital. Build it before your big conversion push — the extra charges multiply every apostle you buy afterward.

When to build it — and when not to

Build it when: Build when your religion must cross into rival territory to win — the charge economy matters most on long conversion campaigns far from home, where every extra spread saves a costly replacement apostle.
Skip it when: Skip when your faith is a means, not the mission — empires spending it on naturalists, Great People or units get nothing from charges. That faith buys the things; these hammers build districts.

Which city should build it

Your faith capital is the host, but faith income is not what the city needs to build it; production is, and Buttress arrives when a Holy Site city usually has the weakest hammers in the empire. The best fit is a Holy Site that shares a river with hills and a Workshop-capable Industrial Zone, with a flat tile beside it so the wonder is legal. Because the extra spread charges apply to every missionary and apostle you buy anywhere, the wonder does not need to be in the city that purchases them; put it where it finishes fastest. Keep the Holy Site's other sides free for the pieces you may want later, such as the Mahabodhi Temple's woods tile or a Kotoku-in slot, since the district has only six neighbours.

Winning the race

Only civilizations that founded a religion can queue it, which trims the field to a handful of rivals, but those are precisely the leaders who chase it: Philip, Basil, Peter and Saladin will detour for Buttress. Its cost is heavy for the era and Buttress is a side tech most science paths ignore, so the race is decided by who researches it deliberately. Line up a Holy Site with a flat neighbour early and leave two or three woods standing until the turn the wonder queues; Magnus in the faith city turns them into most of the cost. Gothic Architecture applies, and a medieval Great Engineer finishes what the chops leave. If a religious rival has founded, enhanced and already has a Temple in their Holy Site, they are ahead; check gossip before spending chops.

If you lose it: alternatives

Losing it simply raises the number of religious units a conversion campaign consumes, so substitute faith income for charges: a second Holy Site with a Temple, Scripture in an economic slot, and the Orator promotion on apostles whenever it is offered all stretch the same faith further. Put the freed hammers into Temples across your cities first, because they are the prerequisite for buying apostles anyway, and then into the Meenakshi Temple or Mahabodhi Temple if either is still open; both use the Holy Site side you kept clear, so the reserved tile is not wasted. If religion is only a supporting axis of your game, do not replace it at all and spend the production on a Theater Square or Commercial Hub, which returns more to the empire as a whole.

Planning a district next to this wonder? Check its adjacency bonus →

Other wonders of the same era

Related guides

Last reviewed: 2026-10-03