style="color:black">in the Middle
Ages, and as Kiziqi after the 15th century. Sighnaghi (literally,
"harbor" in Turkish) as a settlement is first recorded in the early
18th century. In 1762, King Heraclius
II of Georgia sponsored the construction of the town and erected a
fortress to defend the area from marauding attacks by Dagestan tribesmen.
As of the 1770 census, Sighnaghi was settled by
100 families, chiefly craftsmen and merchants. When Georgia was annexed by Imperial Russia in 1801, Sighnaghi was officially granted town status and
became a centre of Signakh uyezd within Tiflis
Governorate in 1802. The town quickly rose in its size and population
and became an agricultural centre under the Soviet
Union
