Nea Ekklesia of the Theotokos

The New Church of the Theotokos was a Byzantine church erected by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) in Jerusalem. Like the later Nea Ekklesia (Νέα Ἐκκλησία) in Constantionople, it is sometimes referred to in English as The Nea.

The church was completed in 543 and severely damaged or destroyed during the Persian conquest of the city in 614. It was further used as a source of building material by the Umayyads few decades later.

Two contemporary accounts survive that describe the building of the Nea, but neither author has much to say about the shape and organization of the church complex. Cyril of Scythopolis, a Christian monk who lived in 525–558, records that the church was begun by the Patriarch Elias but left unfinished until Justinian allocated funds for its completion at the behest of St. Sabas in 531. A more detailed account of the church and its construction comes from Procopius, the principal historian of the sixth century and the primary source of information for the rule of the Emperor Justinian. In his De Aedificiis, he writes that “in Jerusalem he [Justinian] dedicated to the Mother of God a shrine with which no other can be compared.” The Nea was situated on Mount Zion, the highest hill in the city, near the Church of the Holy Apostles (built in 347) and the Basilica of Hagia Sion (built in 390). Due to the rugged topography, the architect Theodoros first had to extend the southeastern part of the hill and support the church with huge substructures. This account by Procopius corresponds with the excavations of Yoram Tsafrir, as well as a tablet uncovered on the vaulted subterranean cistern that securely dates the building to 543.

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