[1] The complex of the monastery included the basilica church as well as hostels for pilgrims and other guests, underground chambers, holy water springs and crypts.

[2][6] The monastery remained a major pilgrimage site until the 14th-15th centuries when it suffered repeated destruction due to the Ottoman conquest of the region.

[3] During World War II (1944) the monument witnessed devastating destruction and was reduced to shattered ruins: it was either destroyed by German artillery or Allied aircraft.

[3] The main structure of the church seems indicative of late antique Christian architecture while it shares parallels to the seven apsed banqueting hall of the palace of Lausos in Constantinople built in c. 530-550 AD.

[9] A number of dedicatory Greek inscriptions made of broken tile and potsherds have been unearthed on the sides of the structure with some of them dating from the 5th and 6th centuries.

[10] During the 1920s Italian archaeologist Luigi Maria Ugolini published the first research about the basilica of the monastery in which he mentioned it as among the finest religious monuments he had studied in Albania.