Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Shopping
36
Bookcourt
B2
(see 2)
37
Craft Market
B2
(see 37)
38
Power Music
B2
History
Port Louis was first settled in the 17th century by the Dutch, who called it Noordt Wester
Haven. It was the French governor Bertrand François Mahé de Labourdonnais, however,
who took the initiative and developed it into a busy capital and port after 1736. He was re-
warded with a much-photographed statue in Place d'Armes.
Few cities have bounced back from as many natural disasters as Port Louis, or Port Na-
poleon as it was known briefly in the early 19th century before the British took the island.
Between 1773 and 1892 a series of fires, plagues and tropical storms all tried, and failed,
to level the town. In 1819 cholera arrived from Manila on the frigate
Topaz,
killing an es-
timated 700 Port Louis residents. Things quietened down until 1866, when malaria sud-
denly appeared on the scene, causing a further 3700 fatalities. Around this time people
started heading for the cooler (and healthier) Central Plateau, so the town's population
was mercifully small when the 1892 cyclone whipped through and destroyed 3000 homes.
The 20th century saw Port Louis become one of Africa's most important financial
centres and ports - to which the ever-growing number of high-rise glass-fronted banks in
the city centre attest.
Sights
Most of the following sights can be reached on foot, but consider a taxi or bus to reach the
citadel and Père Laval's shrine (
Click here
)
.
Central Market
MARKET
