The article says a local bishop and the architect Hilarion, son of Vane Kanchaeli, built the main church in 1030, according to a stone inscription that is now lost. Gayane, wife of Amilakhor, is named as a secondary builder. Tradition holds that an earlier monastery was founded on the site in 572.
It is a prolonged rectangular, four-piered, cruciform domed church, a Georgian interpretation of the cross-in-square form. The drum is taller than in earlier Georgian churches and has a conical roof. Ornamental blind arcading covers the exterior, and the eastern facade has a gryphon relief.
Earthquakes collapsed the dome and parts of the wall, and a 19th-century reconstruction by Ripardi removed portals. Frescoes of 1679 survive in the dome and apse. The article states no overall dimensions or heritage listing.
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