Ġnien is-Sultan
| Ġnien is-Sultan | |
|---|---|
| Giardino della Marina | |
View of the garden circa 1880s
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| Type | Garden |
| Location | Valletta, Malta |
| Coordinates | 35°53′40.2″N 14°30′46.7″E / 35.894500°N 14.512972°ECoordinates: 35°53′40.2″N 14°30′46.7″E / 35.894500°N 14.512972°E |
| Opened | 17th century |
| Closed | 19th–20th centuries |
| Founder | Giovanni Paolo Lascaris |
| Status | Destroyed |
Ġnien is-Sultan (Maltese for King's Garden), also known as the Giardino della Marina (Italian for Marina Garden), the Grand Master's Garden or Lascaris Garden, was a garden in Valletta, Malta. It was established in the 17th century by Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, and it included a summer residence for the Grand Master.
The summer residence and part of the garden was destroyed by the British military in the 19th century to make way for Lascaris Battery, a casemated artillery battery which was named after the Grand Master who had built the gardens. The remaining part of the garden was destroyed in the 20th century, and its site is now occupied by social housing blocks. The only major remain of the garden is a Baroque fountain with a niche in situ.
When Francesco Laparelli designed the fortifications of Valletta in 1566, he designed a two-tiered demi-bastion known as St. Peter and St. Paul Bastion on the eastern extremity of the city's land front, overlooking the Grand Harbour. The demi-bastion was too high to offer adequate defence, so in the early 17th century the rocky shore below it was reshaped into a faussebraye (or tenaille) with a rock-hewn ditch stretching from the bastion to the Del Monte Gate. Construction was entrusted to the local contractor Maestro Xara. This rampart became known as Lascaris Bastion, after Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, who had commissioned its construction.
Soon after the rampart was completed, Grand Master Lascaris requisitioned the site and he built a summer residence with a garden there. The garden contained a belvedere and several fountains which were supplied by water from the Wignacourt Aqueduct. The garden became the focal point of the Valletta Marina, which also included the Church of Our Lady of Liesse, Neptune's Fountain and the Del Monte Gate. The area became one of the most picturesque parts of Valletta, and it was depicted in several paintings between the 17th and 19th centuries.
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