The architecture of the present Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, which dates from around 1020, is based on the cross-dome style of church architecture, which emerged in Georgia in the early Middle Ages and became the principle style after the political unification of Georgia by Bagrat III (978-1014). The characteristic of this style is that the dome is placed across all four sides of church. There was originally a more harmonic three-step silhouette, with portals from the south, west and north. The northern and southern portals were demolished in the 1830s. The current entrance to the cathedral is from the west.