17th century onward
In & Around Shaniwar Peth
शनिवार पेठ
One of Pune's oldest neighbourhoods, founded under Murtaza Nizam Shah, and one of its least explored. Quiet lanes, magnificent wadas and temples the Peshwas built.
Shaniwar Peth goes back to the 17th century, well before the Peshwas made Pune their capital. Walk its quieter lanes and the old houses do the talking — carved doorframes, stone plinths, the occasional surviving sopa verandah where the household once sat to watch the street.
We spend time on the temples the Peshwas endowed here, on the families whose names the lanes still carry, and on the slow, difficult question of what happens to a wada when the family that built it has scattered across four cities.
This is a lesser-explored corner even for Punekars, and one of the walks people most often tell us they had no idea existed.
On this walk
- The founding of the peth under Murtaza Nizam Shah
- Wada facades: brackets, balconies, doorframes, plinths
- Peshwa-era temples away from the tourist routes
- Lane names and the families behind them
- Conservation: what is being kept and what is being lost
From this walk
Keep walking
Other routes
Sarasbaug: Heritage & Nature
Everyone in Pune has been to Sarasbaug. Almost nobody knows it was built as a lake — or that it is named after the cranes Sawai Madhavrao released onto its water.
Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum
Twenty thousand objects of everyday Indian life, gathered by one man over six decades. We take a themed route through it — so you leave having actually seen something, rather than everything.
Kasba Peth & Budhwar Peth
Kasba is the oldest peth in the city and Budhwar grew up beside it. Together they hold Pune's founding temple, its densest surviving wada fabric, and its most complicated present.