[2] The episcopal palace was badly damaged in fighting during the August 2008 Russo-Georgian War and subsequently underwent an emergency stabilization program.

"[4] This account is reiterated by the historian Prince Vakhushti, writing c. 1745, who adds that a bishop still resided at Nikozi in his day, being "a pastor to the Caucasians, the Dvals, and what is now known as Ossetia, as well as Glola-Ghebi".

[5] St. Ražden's martyrium is also mentioned by the anonymous 13th-century Georgian chronicle Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns, which relates that one of the sons of "the kings of Ossetians", a disillusioned claimant to the hand of Queen Tamar (r. 1184–1213), died in Nikozi and was buried in its church of St.

[8][9] As systematic archaeological studies have not been conducted at Nikozi and the church has been remodeled several times in the course of history, neither the fire-temple nor the 5th-century shrine of St. Ražden mentioned in the chronicles has been identified.

[2] The extant cathedral is constructed in a cross-in-square plan, measuring 16.7 × 11.5 m.[2] A three-line inscription in the medieval Georgian asomtavruli script on the south façade identifies Bishop Michael as the builder of the church and is paleographically dated to the 10th century.

[10][3] In the northwest corner of the complex stands a 16th–17th-century two-storey bell-tower, measuring 5.45 × 5.35 m., with its façades faced with grey hewn stone slabs.

The ground floor acts as a vaulted porch with three bearing arches; the top storey a pyramidal structure containing bells.

Dated to the 9th–11th century, it is a two-storey building set in a rectangular plan, with the dimensions of 11.2 × 21 m., and built of rubble, ashlars, and brick.