It is a large 5th-century triple basilica, built over an earlier ruined church, which is carbon dated to AD 387, making it one of the earliest known Christian sites in Georgia.

[1] The Dolochopi basilica—so named after a long-abandoned village—stands in ruins at the northwest outskirts of the town of Qvareli, on the right bank of the Duruji river.

[2] The ruins at Dolochopi were located in archaeological reconnaissance in 2010 and excavated by an expedition of the Georgian National Museum led by Nodar Bakhtadze between 2012 and 2015.

The settlement, unknown from written sources, had declined steadily after a series of earthquakes and foreign invasions, falling into oblivion and being reclaimed by nature by the Late Middle Ages.

The church was covered by a wooden roof with terracotta tiles, held in place with iron nails and antefixes.

[8] The discoveries at Chabukauri and Dolochopi challenged a previous assumption that the first church buildings in eastern Georgia were typically small narrow edifices built to accommodate a limited number of people.