File:Menavali Ghat,Wai.jpg

English: Menawali (मेणवली) is a village about three kilometres from Wai in the Satara district.The village's claim to fame is due to the palace (wada) built by Nana Fadnavis,18th century Maratha statesman and the regent of Peshwa Madhavrao II.

Chimaji Appa, Maratha general and brother of Bajirao I collected five large bells from Vasai Fort after he captured the fort from the Portuguese in 1739.He offered the bells at Bhimashankar and also at to the Shiva Temple on the banks of the Krishna river at Menavali[1]. Later in the 18th century, Nana Fadnavis,the influential statesman of Maratha empire, built a large residence here on the banks of the Krishna river.

Bhavan Rao Trymbak Pant Pratinidhi of Aundh and Raghunath Ghanshyam Mantri (Satara) bestowed the village of Menavali to Nana Phadnavis in December 1768.

Nana Phadnavis settled the village and built his residence complex here. It had a Wada (A mansion with an inner courtyard), a Ghat (steps) leading from the mansion to the Krishna river and two temples, one dedicated to Lord Vishnu and another to Meneshwar (मेणेश्वर) Lord Shiva. The architectural combination of a Wada-type residence, a Ghat on a water-body and a Temple was typical of Peshwa era.This construction was completed around 1780. The Phadnavis wada is one of the very rare places where such a combination is preserved intact.Originally, simple stone steps descending into a river, ghats evolved into an elaborate arrangement of terraces with separate areas for different activities, such as bathing, washing, filling water and performing religious rites. Temples were traditionally built on ghats.

Several Bollywood movies have been shot, using the wada as an exotic location, notably, Yudh (Jackie Shroff/Tina Munim), Mrityudand (Madhuri Dixit), Goonj Uthi Shehnai, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hain (Govinda), Gangaajal (Ajay Devgan), Sarja (Ajinkya Deo), Bajirao Mastani and Swades (Shahrukh Khan, Gayatri Joshi).[10] The film crew of the movie Swades, once camped at the ghat to shoot some footage. The crew cleaned and painted the old stone walls of the ghat and the temples.