Vishrambaug Wada

History

Vishrambaug Wada was built in 1807 AD at the price of Rs 200,000. It took six years to complete the construction. Baji Rao II preferred this residence to the ill-fated Shaniwar Wada, the citadel of the Peshwas. Baji Rao II stayed here for eleven years until his defeat in the Third Anglo-Maratha War. After the war the British exiled him with a pension to Bithur near Kanpur. His wife, Varanasibai, continued to stay here for a while before joining him in Bithur. Soon the British took over Pune.

In 1821, the new East India Company rulers of Pune started the Hindoo college in the Wada to continue Sanskrit learning in the city. The college was the forerunner of the Poona college which later became Deccan College. A high school called Vishrambag High School also operated out of the palace. In 1871, an act of arson entirely destroyed the eastern wing of the wada.

In 1930, the then Poona municipality bought the property from the colonial Bombay Presidency government for a sum of Rs 100,000. Until 1959, Municipality and its successor, the Pune Municipal Corporation(PMC) operated out of Vishrambaag Wada. Several PMC department offices were based in the wada until 2003.