According to the medieval Georgian chronicles, Dmanisi served as a burial ground to King Vakhtang III of Georgia, who died in 1308; the tomb has not survived.

The inner walls were once fully frescoed; the badly damaged 13th–14th-century depictions of the Mandylion, saints and inscriptions survive in the altar apse; fragments of a royal portrait and two scenes of the Doomsday are visible in the northeastern and northwestern pilasters, respectively.

A small flagstone in the south wall of the altar bears a carving in relief, depicting two laymen standing en face, with a pedestalled cross in between them.

[1] Farther, to the northeast, there is small single-nave church of Saint Marina, rebuilt in 1702 by Isakhar, a caregiver for Princess Mariam of Kartli.

Another, also on the western facade, mentions George IV's son David VII and relates that the bishop of Dmanisi abolished a local law that required a payment for the wedding rite.