India Guide
Maharashtra
Shaniwarwada Palace
Address: 2km southwest from the railway station, in the centre of the oldest part of town
Price: US$2
Opening time: Daily 8am– noon & 2–6pm
Only the imposing high walls of the Shaniwarwada Palace survived three fires in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Founded by the Peshwa ruler Bajrao I in 1730 and the chief residence of the Peshwas until the British arrived in 1817, the building has little to excite interest, though there's a daily sound-and-light show in English (7pm; Rs100). The entrance is through the Delhi gate on the north side, one of five set into the perimeter wall, whose huge teak doors come complete with elephant-proof spikes. The interior is now grassed over, the seven-storey building entirely absent. Only one guide, usually available in the afternoons, speaks English.