The Zarzma monastery is nested in the forested river valley of Kvabliani and its tributary Dzindze in the Adigeni municipality, 30 km west of the city of Akhaltsikhe.

According to his source, the great nobleman Giorgi Chorchaneli made significant donation – including villages and estates – to the monastery.

Its construction was sponsored by Beka I, Prince of Samtskhe and Lord High Mandator of Georgia of the Jaqeli family.

What has survived from the earlier monastery is the late 10th-century Georgian inscription inserted in the chapel's entrance arch.

The inscription reports the military aid rendered by Georgian nobles to the Byzantine emperor Basil II against the rebellious general Bardas Sclerus in 979.

On the northern wall are depicted Bagrat III of Imereti, Serapion Khurtsisdze, Georgi Chorchaneli, two unknown persons named Arab and Kurtsik, and Simon Gurieli of Svaneti.

It was commissioned by Grand Duke George Alexandrovich, a member of the Russian imperial family, from the Tbilisi-based architect Otto Jacob Simons who built it between 1899 and 1902, marrying a medieval Georgian design with the contemporaneous architectural forms.

[3] The bell tower originally was part of the fortification wall, and its ground floor served as entrance to the monastery.