3rd
century AD Georgian king Asphagur of Iberia with its foundation as a fortress.
By the early 18th century, Tskhinvali was a small "royal town"
populated chiefly by monastic serfs. Tskhinvali was annexed to the Russian Empire along with the rest of eastern Georgia in 1801. Located on a trade routewhich linked North
Caucasus to Tbilisi and Gori, Tskhinvali gradually developed into a commercial town with
a mixed Jewish
