The Shaliani Icon is preserved in the most important shrine of Upper Svaneti — the Church of St. Kvirike (Lagurka). This modest, hall-type church is situated atop a mountain in the community (temi) of Kala, on the left bank of the Enguri River. Although architecturally unassuming, the church occupies a prominent place in the history of medieval Georgian art. Its interior is adorned with remarkable 12th-century frescoes attributed to the renowned royal artist Theodore. The church treasury houses exceptional examples of medieval Georgian goldsmithing, among them the Shaliani Icon, a masterpiece of Byzantine origin.

The church is dated to the 10th c. and is built of well-cut ashlar. It is a single nave church with a projecting apse and an ambulatory. The western façade is decorated with thick blind arches that imbue the small building with an air of monumentality. The sanctuary is separated from the hall by a five-arched chancel-barrier.

Albert Dilbaryan, known as Dilbo, emerged from the generation of the 1960s. His pictorial mise-en-scènes, shaped by a melancholic yet romantic worldview, stand apart from both the dominant styles of his contemporaries and the broader post-Stalinist canon. Though he never openly opposed Soviet ideology, Dilbo remained a quiet dissenter within his own “artistic shell.” For him, depicting unrealistic or fantastical imagery became a means for escaping the constraints of a collectivistic society.