Visit This Beautiful Palace {That Used To Be A Prison} On Your Next Pune Trip

You’ve gotta visit the beautiful and mystical Aga Khan Palace in Pune, which also holds a tragic history within its walls.

The palace served as the prison for Mahatma Gandhi, Kasturba Gandhi, his secretary Mahadev Desai and the nightingale of India, Sarojini Naidu. We visited it a while back, and report back why you need to visit it.

Situated on the Pune-Nagar road, not that from away from Viman Nagar, Aga Khan Palace is a grand old spatial palace that may as well be from the Victorian time. With lush green sprawling gardens, long corridors and arching roofs and intricately designed pillars, it comes with an ironic historical detail attached it. The palace in fact served as a prison for the father of the nation following the spread of the Quit India Movement back in 1944. This palace was built in 1892 by Imma Sultan Muhammad Shah Agakhan III who donated this property way back in 1969 to Pune. This is the same place where Kasturba Gandhi and Desai breathed their last moments. Declared as a monument of national importance, the palace invites tourists from across the world {though it’s hardly ever crowded}.

The palace has been curated like a real-life museum, as we found artefacts owned by the Gandhi family safely staged there among old and rare photographs of prominent freedom fighters pre-Independence.

Walking around the palace is like walking into a history book, with scenes from Gandhi’s life memorialised in the rooms with his objects, rugs, and books intact and kept there. The museum rooms also contain a number of old black and white portraits with bundles of archives of documents signed by him. The museum is generally always open to visitors, as we scrolled pass the write-ups on the wall detailing the struggle of the freedom fighters during the British Raj.

The floors are marbled with old-style tile designs, doors with fading mahogany wood, and windows built in-with old rustic grills with beautiful patterns morphed onto them. Our favourite bit, however, is the lush green garden outside the palace, perfect for chilling and relaxing on a warm sunny day that we visited the Palace on.

There’s a small drinking water fountain outside as well, in case you need to quench your thirst. The entry fee for Indians is INR 10 and for the foreigners is INR 1,000.

Seeing the old portraits, utensils and even his area were he used to sleep was almost like walking into a time-machine. We learnt a lot about the rich history of Gandhi, his family and the freedom struggle he so self-righteously propagated and achieved. We highly recommend visiting this magnificent palace next time you’re in Pune for a lazy afternoon will be well-spent.