lass="MsoNormal">The present City Gate (Bieb il-Belt) is the fourth
to have stood at the entrance to Valletta. The military engineer Francesco
Laparelli de Carotona designed the original gate, known as Porta San
Giorgio, which was erected between April 1566 and 1569. During the rule of
Grand MasterAntoine de Paule, the Maltese architect Tommaso Dingli designed
a more ornate gate that replaced the Porta in 1632. In 1853, at the height of
British rule, a certain Col. Thompson of the Royal Engineers designed and
erected a new gate consisting of two central arches with two smaller ones. This
gate, which survived for slightly more than a century, was known as Porta
Reale, Putirjal in Maltese and Kings gate in English. The Independence
celebrations in 1964 inaugurated the present gate, whose Italian modernist design
remains the source of much controversy. A new city gate is now part of the
renovation schemes in Valletta. The new gate is designed by Italian architect
Renzo Piano and construction starts 2010 finishing in 2013.
The Triton Fountain is situated in the centre of
Valletta's main bus terminus, surrounded by shops and cafes. The Maltese
sculptor Vincent Apap designed the fountain's statues in 1959, modeling
them after Classical and Baroque examples.
The Knights constructed the Castellania, which faces
the harbour, as the city's law courts. The architect Francesco Zerafa designed
the building and construction began in 1760 during the reign of Grand Master Manuel
Pinto de Fonseca, who died two years before the building's completion. The
facade includes florid stone-work and de Fonseca's crescent emblem. On the
sides of the first floor balcony there stand two statues that the Sicilian sculptor Maestro
Gian created to represent Justice and Truth. A pillory stone resides in
the apex
