A Piecemeal Discovery

Although the huge barrel-vaulted halls supporting the Nea had been discovered by Charles Warren in the late 19th century, the long-buried remains of the church itself were first revealed to modern eyes by excavations of Israeli archaeologists in the 1970s.

While excavating in the Jewish Quarter, the late Nahman Avigad found the northern apse of the church’s tri-apsidal eastern wall. In the vaults that Warren had explored, Avigad also discovered the monumental inscription that dated the church to the reign of Justinian, as well as a giant cross below the inscription.