Saint George Church of Saorbis

Saint George Church of Saorbisi is a church in the southern outskirts of the village of Fitsesi, Gori Municipality, on a high rocky hill on the left bank of the Tedzmi River. It was built in 1152.

The church is a hall (17 × 12.5 m), built of well-polished sandstone squares (the building is damaged). The entrance to the church is from the south, from the southwest transept. The semicircular apse of the building has one window and two niches. One window is in the north and south walls. A badly damaged, skillfully made lintel separates the altar from the hall. Fragments of paintings preserved on the walls inside are contemporary with the building.

In the conch of the altar there is a composition of prayers. The right foot of the Savior is visible, on which remains of a golden ochre base and brown contour have been preserved, a fragment of a reddish-brown chiton and the leg of a square-shaped throne divided into rectangles. Nearby on the north side is a fragment of a hexapod. In the second register of the altar there are six figures of the Fathers of the Church. The images are frontal. The painting of the window lintels is relatively better preserved. According to the Asomtavruli inscription, two deaconesses are represented here: St. Stephen and St. Germanos. The saints' robes are of different colors: the Church Fathers' are yellow, the deacons' are grayish-purple. The eastern section of the north wall depicts the Entry into Jerusalem (only a fragment of the image of a horse and a child facing the Savior has survived). In the western part of the same wall, two images of martyrs are distinguished (one of them is a warrior). In the eastern section of the southern wall, the battle of St. George with the dragon (damaged) has been preserved. The horse is red in color. The head of the Savior is depicted in the tympanum of the entrance. Above the entrance, to the right of it and on the western wall, there are remains of separate scenes that cannot be distinguished. The window frames of the southern wall are painted with a plant ornament - three-petal flowers, yellow twigs and stamens on a black background, which is characteristic of Georgian monumental painting of the 11th-12th centuries. The color scheme of the painting is restrained. Reddish-brick, golden ocher, blue, reddish-brown and gray are mainly used. The figures are static, distinguished by their severity.

The building stands on a high plinth. The western facade of the church overlooks a rocky slope. The wide transepts of the eastern and southern windows are decorated with finely carved floral and geometric ornaments. On the eastern facade, at the tip of the pediment, an equal-armed cross is carved. On the same facade, above the window, on a slab embedded in the wall, there is an inscription in Asomtavruli: "Saint George, have mercy on the Eristavit Eristavi Kakha and their children, and protect the village and their land, your harvest and the builder of your temple, the Koronikoni was Tab" (1152). The inscription tells us the identity of the builder of the church (Kakha Eristavteristavi). A fence is built on the northern and southern walls of the church, in which a door is cut in the southwest.