According to the Armenian historian Sebeos, was built by Catholicos Nerses III the Builder 640-650 years, planned to move from his residence Dvin to Vagharshapat. Nerses III are also attributed to the construction of buildings in the Dvina river and Khor Virap and Zvartnots is similar to the Church in his native village of Ishkhan in Taiko. The consecration of the temple colossal prisutstvovavshie Emperor Constans II, who wished to construct the same in Constantinople. In the X century the Church because of the weakness of the nodes supports of the second tier collapsed during the earthquake. The ruins of Zvartnots have been opened by excavations in 1901-1907 years.To date, almost entirely reconstructed first layer.
Temple, reconstruction of Toramanian, was a round three-tiered domed structure (diameter of bottom tier of 35.75 m). In round the base is inscribed a cross, three wings of which formed the semicircle of the 6 columns, and the East wing — the apse — was a blank wall, which was covered with mosaics and frescoes. At the altar apse, the high elevation, with one side a pulpit, in front — and the baptistery. Behind the apse is adjoined a square room, probably the sacristy, which was coming up the stairs into the corridor that ran along the top of the first tier.
The temple facades were decorated with arches, carvings, reliefs with ornaments and bunches of pomegranates and grapes. Columns of Zvartnots surmounted by massive capitals with images of crosses, eagles, donators of the Church. In the South-West of the temple — the ruins of the Patriarchal Palace, the living quarters of Nerses III, vinodavilni.