Home / Experience Mauritius / Historical & Cultural Sites / Blue Penny Museum
Home to two of the rarest stamps in the world, the original Paul et Virginie marble and four centuries of maps and charts — the best hour of history you can spend in Port Louis.
The museum opened in November 2001 in a stone building on the Caudan quays that once housed the headquarters of the New Mauritius Docks Company. It exists because of a purchase: in 1993 a consortium led by the Mauritius Commercial Bank paid two million dollars to bring the 1847 Post Office stamps back to the island after almost 150 years abroad. Those two small squares of paper — the vermilion one penny and the deep blue two pence — were the first stamps issued anywhere in the British Empire outside Britain, and only a handful survive.
Because light degrades the ink, the originals sit in darkness and are illuminated for only about ten minutes in each hour; reproductions stand alongside them the rest of the time, so it is worth checking the schedule at the desk when you arrive and planning your route through the rooms around it. The rest of the collection is far more than philately. There are navigation instruments and charts from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, including Lislet Geoffroy’s late-eighteenth-century map of Mauritius and Réunion; engravings and archives of colonial Port Louis; and the original 1881 marble of Paul and Virginie by Prosper d’Épinay, carved from a single block, showing Paul carrying Virginie across a stream. Thematic exhibitions rotate through a further room. Photography is not permitted inside.
Monday to Saturday, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Last admission and boutique close 4:30 PM
Closed Sundays and public holidays
Little — but leave the camera in your bag, as photography is not allowed, and time your arrival around the hourly stamp illumination.
The ground floor is level and easy, but the stamp room is upstairs, which limits access for visitors with mobility difficulties. Parking is available in the Caudan car parks. Guided visits for groups can be arranged on reservation.
The museum sits inside it — stay on for the craft market, the harbour promenade, lunch by the marina or a show at the Arts Centre.
Under ten minutes on foot along the quay: the UNESCO-listed depot where nearly half a million indentured labourers first landed in Mauritius. Free entry.
The nineteenth-century fort on the hill above town, with the widest view over the harbour, the city and the Moka range behind it.
Blue Penny Museum,
Le Caudan Waterfront, Marina Quay,
Port Louis, Mauritius
~10 min walk from the central bus station
~40 min from Grand Baie
~50 min from the airport
Inside Le Caudan Waterfront on the Port Louis harbourfront, with on-site parking and a Metro Express stop a short walk away.
The 1847 Mauritius Post Office issues — a two pence deep blue and a one penny vermilion — the first stamps issued anywhere in the British Empire outside Britain. Very few survive, and the museum holds one of each, bought back for Mauritius in 1993.
Light fades the ink. The originals are kept in darkness and illuminated for roughly ten minutes each hour; reproductions are displayed beside them in between, so check the timing at the admissions desk when you arrive.
Maps, charts and navigation instruments from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, engravings and archives of colonial Port Louis, rotating thematic exhibitions, and the original 1881 Paul et Virginie marble sculpture by Prosper d’Épinay.
Monday to Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with the admissions desk and boutique closing at 4:30 PM. Closed Sundays and public holidays, with shortened hours on 24 and 31 December.
No — photography is not permitted in the exhibition rooms, and food and drink are not allowed inside. The boutique sells reproductions of the engravings and stamp albums.