The Metekhi church appears in 12th-century historical sources, when a new church of the Nativity of the Mother of God was built in place of the old one destroyed by the Khazars. In the 13th century, in the reign of Rusudan, the Mongols destroyed the church once more. In 1661 King Vakhtang V Shahnavaz repaired it but turned it into a gunpowder store. From 1979 a youth drama theater-studio, the so-called "Metekhi Theater", operated and staged performances in it. In May 1988, with the blessing of Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, a new cross was set on the church and services resumed.