Shushi fortress is a fortress surrounding the historical centre of Shushi. Newly established castle town was called “Panahabad fortress” named after Panah Ali Khan who was the founder of the fort. In later years, the city was just called “Fortress”. After a certain period of time, people named it as “Shushi fortress” and later it was simply called “Shushi”. The name of Shushi was probably derived from the name of shosh village which was near the location where the fort was built
Molla Panah Vagif, poet and also the Vizier of Khan of Karabakh, personally supervised and controlled the construction of Shushi fortress. Hasan Ali Khan Garadaghi, the historian of karabakh khanate, commented that “Several buildings in Shushi as well as Shusha fortress was built under the direct supervision of Molla Panah Vagif”.
