Malta - Day 02 - Valletta - 06 March 2024 - Triton fountain and a 2WW Memorial

 

The 3 faces of the Triton fountain from which we caught the bus each day on the start of our various journeys.

The Heritage Malta Pass that lets us into most of the historical sites we have wanted to see has been fantastic. 

The explorer bus pass that lets us on any bus but not on ferries, a bit dodgy as ferries are also public transport but somehow are excluded from the package has also been great.

We can’t complain, with the amount of buses we have used and places we have seen so far, the passes have more than paid for themselves.

Memorial to the pilots that lost their lives in the Second World War, includes all of the South African Pilots.

The fountain is located just before the bridge leading to Valletta’s City Gate. It was built on the site of St. Madeleine’s Lunette, a 17th-century lunette that protected the entrance to the city. The lunette was dismantled and its ditch was filled in with rubble in the 19th century.
Landmarks located close to the fountain include St. James and St. John Counterguards, the Malta Memorial (a commemorative monument for the 2,298 Commonwealth aircrew who lost their lives in the various Second World War air battles and engagements around the Mediterranean and who were left unburied), the Hotel Phoenicia, and the Christ the King Monument.
The Triton Fountain was first installed in its present location to decorate the bus terminus that is located at the entrance to the city. In 1978, the plate on top of the fountain was damaged braking also the arms of two of the three Tritons, after music festivals were organized on top of the fountain. The same fountain was left in a dilapidated state until 1986.
In 1986 the upper basin and the Tritons was badly repaired, changing the general view of the bronze group and of the fountain’s jet’s of water.
The fountain is listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.