The church has a radiating centralised plan based on a hexagon. It is rather plain in appearance, and it was probably built during the second half of the tenth century, perhaps a little earlier, or maybe in the early eleventh century. It also seems to have been substantially restored at a later date, perhaps in the thirteenth or fourteenth century: the stones used in the lower courses are lighter in colour, larger in size, and show more signs of age due to weathering.

Externally, the church is irregular in shape and is ten-sided. Six v-shaped niches further divide the façade and indicate the position of the apses. These niches have arched tops that are decorated with grooves having semi-circular or angular profiles.

There is a single entrance into the church. This doorway has a monolithic rectangular lintel that is off-centre in relation to the doorjambs. The lintel has a decorative frame compose of a twin-corded interlace pattern. Curiously, this pattern is unfinished. The pattern is also off-centre in relation to the door jambs - suggesting that the lintel is actually a re-used block of stone originally intended for another purpose, perhaps as a gravestone. Most of the right hand doorjamb has fallen, and without its support the lintel has cracked.

Above the lintel is a tympanum with a four-centered pointed-arched shape. In the middle of this tympanum there is carved an equal-armed cross set within a circle. Similar crosses are carved on various other parts of the façade, and they are all similar to the cross on the west facade of the cathedral. The tympanum has a hooded frame that is plain except for a series of shallowly carved semi-circles.

Each apse has a semi-dome, with a second, shallower, pointed-arched semi-dome directly above it. The junction between the outer edge of the lower semi-dome and base of the upper semi-dome is, visually, rather unresolved. It takes the form of a small squinch. In the centre of each squinch there is a protruding block of stone that appears to have been carved into the shape of a head. All of the surviving protruding blocks are very eroded, and it is not possible to tell if they were human or animal heads.

A plain strip of stonework, ending in a rectangular capital, separates each apse. These capitals have a single volute.

The transition from the six apses to the base of the cylindrical drum is accomplished using pendentives. In the Aragac church squinches are used and the drum is hexagonal. The drum was pierced by windows; there were probably four of them.

On the slope of the citadel hill between the hexagonal church and the palace there is a pile of fallen masonry. This is probably the remains of the fragment of another ruined church which was noticed and photographed by Lynch in 1893 (see figure 84 in his account of his visit to Ani).