The New Church of the Holy Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, known more simply as the Nea Church, fronts directly onto the southern end of the western Cardo, interrupting the colonnade on one side. This large, red-roofed church is surrounded by smaller auxiliary buildings. Although easily identifiable on the Madaba map (see detail above) and described thoroughly in ancient sources, the Nea’s precise location in Jerusalem was unknown until the 20th century.