 The remnants of an even older wooden church were found inside in the southern arm of the cross.The architecture of the present Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, which dates from around 1020, is based on the cross-dome style of church architecture, which emerged in Georgia in the early Middle Ages and became the principle style after the political unification of Georgia by Bagrat III (978-1014).The characteristic of this style is that the dome is placed across all four sides of church.