Signaghi: City of Love in the Middle of the Georgian Mountains Bashny.Net

When Alexander Dumas traveled to Georgia and later sang it in the book “Caucasus”, he probably would have been interested to look at the City of Love, which grew up in the middle of the Georgian mountains. There is no such thing as a city of love in this area. The city itself, of course, was, but love came there only eight years ago.

Signahi is a small Georgian town in the Kakheti region. A real land of wine, mountains and, as it turns out, love. Today Signaghi is one of the tourist centers of Georgia, although ten years ago it was an ordinary inconspicuous village. The new birth of the city cost the government 13 million lari. In 2007, on the orders of Mikheil Saakashvili, Signaghi was completely restored, the government spared no money to turn the mountain village into a city built in Italian style. In this way, the dust hole was artificially transformed into a “mast si” in Georgian. With a new face to Signagha came a new glory, the glory of the City of Love.



But this does not mean that the village was not known before the restoration. It was in this place that the story that formed the basis of the song “A Million Red Roses” occurred. According to legend, the famous Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani, unrequitedly in love with the beautiful actress Margarita, sold his house in Signahi. With the proceeds, he bought an unimaginable number of flowers and paved the street near the house of his beloved. But “they lived happily ever after” – not about this story, the tour of the actress ended, and she left Georgia forever, and Niko Pirosmani immortalized his love in one of the paintings, which received the uncomplicated name “Actress Margarita”.



Today, only the remains of the old fortress are reminiscent of the former Signaghi, towering against the backdrop of new pretty scenery. Translated from the Turkic "Signahi" means "impregnable", so the city was thanks to the massive fortress walls that stretched around the city for many kilometers along the mountain ranges.



Today, massive walls burst into the historic center of Signagi, often adjacent to the city buildings, and the gates that used to serve as the entrance to the fortress are now located in the middle of the modern city. Anyone can go upstairs, wander the walls, look into the defensive towers and admire the famous Alazan valley.



Alazan Valley is the center of Kakhetian winemaking, the birthplace of the main winemaking masterpieces of the region. Therefore, the wine lists of local cafes and restaurants abound in different types of this fragrant drink.

Signaghi stands high in the mountains, and the view of the Alazan valley opening from here is simply breathtaking. Signahi, who grew up on the top of the mountain with its red tiled roofs, cobbled streets and colorful houses decorated with cozy balconies, resembles a small toy town, somehow miraculously found itself here among the Georgian mountains. To explore the whole city, it will take two hours, but the local nature is a good reason to linger longer in this colorful cozy nest, retinue on the mountain top.



And yet, why the City of Love? It’s simple, Signaghi is a kind of Georgian Las Vegas, there is a round-the-clock Wedding Palace, in which lovers can legalize their relationship at any time of day or night, on any day they like. By the way, Signaghi has really become a popular city among newlyweds, couples come here to celebrate the birth of a new family not only from other cities, but also from other countries.



But this does not mean that the city is famous for numerous weddings. Signaghi’s business card is an annual wine festival. Guests of the City of Love on this day can not only enjoy a variety of Georgian wines, but also participate in the collection of grapes. During the holiday, the calm and quiet town turns into a lively open-air banquet hall, flooded with visiting Georgians and tourists from other countries. The wine festival runs through the cobbled streets of the city, inhaling the smells of fresh paint, reminiscent of a grandiose renovation, and turns into a mountain wind, embracing this young and elegant city, which suddenly, as if out of nowhere, appeared in all tourist guides of the country.

Author: Ksenia Yermolaeva



P.S. And remember, just changing our consumption – together we change the world!

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Source: www.cablook.com/mixlook/gorod-lyubvi/