The ruins lie on the Kiachi hill, near the modern-day village of Jgerda, 8 km south of the Kodori river, in the Tsebelda valley.

[3] The first recorded mention of the Kiachi church is found in a Georgian inscription of a ripidion (liturgical fan) which is dated by the art historian Giorgi Chubinashvili, based on its style and iconography, to the 10th century.

The Kiachi church is next heard of — as "Chiaggi" — in the writings of Arcangelo Lamberti who led a Catholic proselyting mission in western Georgian principalities from 1633 to 1649.

[4][5] In 1640, Levan II Dadiani, prince-regnant of Mingrelia—who held sway of parts of Abkhazia at that time—donated to the Kiachi church an icon of the Archangel, adorned with precious stones and a Georgian inscription, which makes note of the occasion.

Nowadays, both the Kiachi icon of the Archangel and the ripidion are on display at the Dadiani Palace Museum in Zugdidi, formerly the main town of the Principality of Mingrelia.