Signagi - the heart of Kiziqi which is the most picturesque corner of Kakheti, is lying on the South-Eastern slopes of Tsiv-Gombori range. The townlet is overlooking Alazani Valley from the height. Its elevation from the Valley is 400 m. The name of the town derives from Turkic word and means ‘shelter’, or, according to other historical sources, ‘invincible’.
In 1762 king Erekle II turned it into a royal residence and surrounded it with a wall surviving up to the present nearly unchanged. The wall encompasses an area of roughly 40 ha and is the largest fortified structure in Georgia. In 2005-2008 with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the President of Georgia, Signagi underwent a fundamental rehabilitation program. Infrastructure was changed, the wall was revived and streets renovated, buildings were given back historical, century-old appearance. Today the sights of the town include several museums, namely, Museum of Archeology and Ethnology which houses a unique collection of a self-educated artist, Niko Pirosmanishvili. In the fall, a wine festival is usually held in Signagi where wineries and alcohol-producing companies of Georgia present their products – wines of kvevri (clay vats), wines produced in European-style and Georgian farmers (so called ‘peasants’) domestic wines.
The nunnery of St. Nino and Episcopal center of Bodbe (Kiziqi) Eparchy is 2 km away from Signagi. The monastery was built in IV century on the tomb of St. Nino who baptized Georgia. Bodbe is home to active monastic life. Near the spring of water which emerged, as the locals believe, due to prayers of St. Nino, there is ablution site and a small church. The spring is assigned miraculous therapeutic properties and every day it is visited by crowds of people.
Sighnaghi is very close to Tbilisi. It's only 100km. |
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