Vieux Grand Port, located north of Mahébourg, along the coastal Road running from Mahebourg, along the south-east coast of the island, is the cradle of Mauritian history: the place where the first Dutch people landed on 9 September 1598 under the command of Wybrandt Van Warwyck. The Dutch later built a fort 3km further north in what is now the town of Vieux Grand Port. It was the local headquarters of the Dutch East India Company until 1710, when the Dutch abandoned the island. The site was then taken over by the French.

The battered ruins of Fort Frederik Hendrik stand in a park near the church at the northern end of Vieux Grand Port and include the remains of an old Dutch church, a bakery, a prison, a forge, a powder store and a dispensary. A few clay pipes, wine bottles and other items left behind by Dutch and French occupants are now on display in the Frederik Hendrik Museum. The museum also outlines the history of the Dutch in Mauritius.

Most of the basalt and coral ruins in evidence date from the French era, but almost all were built upon the ruins of Dutch structures. It was the site of the first French settlement in Mauritius.