King Abas I of Bagratid Armenia founded the cathedral when Kars was the Bagratid capital. The article gives the start as 930 or between 931 and 932, and completion in 937, 943 or 967, because sources disagree. No building inscriptions survive.
It is a centrally planned, domed tetraconch with four apses radiating from a square bay under a circular dome. The article says it imitates the seventh-century Church of Saint John at Mastara. Twelve figural reliefs on the drum spandrels are identified as the twelve apostles.
After the Seljuk conquest the church was probably abandoned, and it became a mosque in 1579. It was a Russian Orthodox church after 1877, and later a mosque, an Armenian church and a petroleum depot. It was a museum from 1964 to 1993 and is now the Kümbet Mosque.
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