Lal Mahal

The Lal Mahal Red Palace of Pune is one of the most famous monuments located in Pune, India. In the year 1630 AD, Shivaji Maharaj's Father Shahaji Bhosale, set up the Lal Mahal for his wife Jijabai and son. Shivaji Maharaj stayed here for several years until he captured his first castle. The unique Lal Mahal fell into ruins and the contemporary Lal Mahal is a reconstruction of the original and positioned in the middle of the Pune city.

Shivaji's marriage together with his first wife, Maharani Saibai came about in Lal Mahal. The unique Lal Mahal become built with the concept of rejuvenating the recently razed city of Pune whilst Dadoji Kondev entered the city at the side of Shivaji and his mother, Jijabai. Shivaji grew up here, and stayed within the Lal Mahal until he captured the Torna fortress in 1645. Towards the give up of the seventeenth Century, the Lal Mahal fell into ruins and turned into eventually razed to the ground as a result of diverse assaults on the city.

It is said that in the development of the Shaniwarwada, a few soil and stones of the Lal Mahal were used for luck. In 1734-35, a few homes were built on the land of the Lal Mahal and given for use to Ranoji Shinde and Ramchandraji. The information within the offices of the Peshwas mention that Lal Mahal was used for arranging feasts for the Brahmins during the thread-ceremony of Sadoba, son of Chimaji Appa.