Intsoba
Intsoba, Sabue, a monument of Georgian architecture, a monastery complex.
It's located 6–7 km from the village Sabue (Kvareli Municipality), on the banks of the Intsoba River (a left tributary of the Alazani River). The complex includes a three-nave basilica-type church of John the Baptist of the 8th–9th centuries, a three-storey tower built on it from the south, fragments of a stone wall, a two-storey tower incorporated into the southern part of the fence, the first floor of which is a gate, and the remains of buildings for various purposes. The ruins of a tower equipped with gun-ports have survived outside the fence.
The church is built of roughly hewn stones of equal size; brick is also used. The corners of the altar and the outer window openings are built with crumbly rock. The narrow and high, elongated middle nave of the main church, ending in an apse, is directly connected to the altar and the deaconry. The main church has two entrances to the south and west. In the western part of the building there is a wide corridor that connects the side churches. The church has a double-arched entrance from the south, the horseshoe-shaped arches of which rest on a column erected between them.
The church was painted from the inside (traces of painting have been preserved).
Literature: საქართველოს ისტორიისა და კულტურის ძეგლთა აღწერილობა, [ტ.] 1-I , თბ., 2013.
