Tskhinvali was first chronicled by Georgian sources in 1398 as a village in Kartli (central Georgia) though a later account credits the 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 route which linked North Caucasus to Tbilisi and Gori, Tskhinvali gradually developed into a commercial town with a mixed Jewish, Georgian, Armenian and Ossetian population.

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