The church was built in 618 under Catholicos Komitas, a date from Sebeos's chronology that scholars nearly unanimously accept. The architect is not confirmed, and one argument from the builder inscription holds that Komitas may have been the architect. It stands on the eastern edge of Vagharshapat, beside the road to Yerevan.
Externally rectangular, it has an inscribed cruciform tetraconch plan, with an octagonal core opening into four apses and four corner sacristies. It measures about 75 by 58 feet (22.8 by 17.7 m) and is roughly 75 feet (23 m) high inside. A conical roof sits on a sixteen-faceted drum with twelve windows. The walls are dark gray tuff ashlar. Four corner turrets act as buttresses, the only such example in Armenia.
Scholars dispute the dome's date and original form. A portico was added in 1653 and a belfry in 1790, and major restoration ran from 1955 to 1962. UNESCO listed it in 2000 with Etchmiadzin Cathedral.
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