The Shemokmedi monastery consists of two architecturally simple churches-those of the Redeemer and the Transfiguration otherwise known as Zarzma.
The church of the Transfiguration was constructed at the behest of Prince Vakhtang I Gurieli in the late 1570s to house the venerated 9th-century Icon of the Transfiguration of Jesus rescued from the Zarzma Monastery in the Ottoman-occupied Principality of Samtskhe; hence comes the other name of the church, "Zarzma".