Georgian sources credit King Mirian III with founding Samtavro in the 4th century, with a small church built by St. Nino. King George I and Catholicos-Patriarch Melchizedek I carried out the 11th-century reconstruction. The main church is dated to the first half of the 11th century by style, since no inscriptions survive.
It is a cross-in-square church with a dome resting on two pillars and the projecting walls of the apse. The facades are yellow and brown stone. A south portal and a more recent west portal lead in, and windows in the dome and all four walls light the interior.
The 1283 earthquake destroyed the dome, restored between the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The bell-tower dates from the 16th century. The complex is part of the UNESCO site in Mtskheta, inscribed in 1994.
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