Tour Koenig, Tower in Port Louis, Mauritius

Tour Koenig is a stone tower in Port Louis built from rubble and mortar that rises approximately 17 meters high. It stands near the southern entrance of the city and is now managed as a national monument by the Heritage Fund.

Between 1826 and 1838 Alexis Henry Koenig, born on the island in March 1799, gradually acquired a 350-arpent estate on the left bank of the Grande Rivière Nord d'Ouest and built the family residence Grande Rivière there. The tower was added so that his father Jean Antoine, a Bavarian from Germany, could be reminded of his home region. The reasons for stopping work on the tower remain uncertain; a local newspaper cited a fatal fall, while others mention a government ban to prevent the tower being mistaken for a lighthouse. The property stayed in the family for four generations until around 1886.

The tower takes its name from the Koenig family: Jean Antoine, a German from Bavaria, and his son Alexis Henry, born on the island in March 1799, who built the family home Grande Rivière. The site now lies within the grounds of the Nelson Mandela Cultural Center, which manages it with the National Heritage Fund.

The tower stands within the grounds of the Nelson Mandela Cultural Centre, near the southern entrance to Port Louis, on a hilltop about 24 m above the surrounding area. The monument itself is a ruin, so the tower and its outbuildings are seen from outside rather than entered. The site lies close to the road leading towards Pointe-aux-Sables, where one of the island's five Martello towers also stands.

Construction of the tower stopped for reasons that remain unexplained. One local newspaper reported that a worker died in a fall during the works; the same publication also suggested the government banned further building so the tower, close to the port, would not be mistaken for a lighthouse at night and cause navigation errors.