It consists of three bronze Tritons holding up a large basin, balanced on a concentric base built out of concrete and clad in 730 tons of travertine slabs.

[1][2] Designed and constructed between 1952 and 1959 under no less than three governing bodies, and conceived jointly by eminent sculptor Chevalier Vincent Apap and his collaborator draughtsman Victor Anastasi, the fountain became unofficially operational on Saturday 16 May 1959.

The fountain deteriorated in subsequent decades, and was earmarked for relocation in 2010 when the Heritage Planning Unit of the Planning Authority through its Conservation Officer Kenneth Cauchi advised that the monumental fountain would be best left in situ and any efforts were to be aimed and restoring the whole structure to its original form and reinstate the sculptural group in its dramatic carrying role of the ponderous basin.

Much efforts and meetings were undertaken with Minister of Infrastructure, Communication and Transport Dr. Austin Gatt who stopped all proposals of relocating the fountain in a Press Conference dated 9 December 2011.

The fountain consists of three bronze figures of mythological Tritons holding up a huge circular basin measuring 5m in diameter and weighing approximately 3tons.

These underground passages and a pump room cover an area of over 140 m2 (1,500 sq ft), and are accessible through a manhole in the pavement near the fountain.

The lunette was dismantled and its ditch was filled in with rubble in the 19th century,[8] although some parts might have survived beneath the present street level.

[9] The area was eventually used as a bus terminus, and in January 1953 the Ministry for Public Works and Reconstruction launched a competition for designing a fountain in this empty space.

Apap worked on the sculpture of three Tritons in stucco at a former dovecote in Palazzo Parisio, which had been made available by his friend, the marquis Joe Scicluna.

[11] Meanwhile, Anastasi worked on the technical and architectural elements of the fountain, including the hydraulic systems, and costs and supplies of materials.

A platform was built on the fountain's sculptural group to house entertainment acts which included concerts as well as motorcycles climbing on the bronze basin over specially-constructed ramps.

This project included rebuilding the City Gate and landscaping the surrounding area, and Piano recommended that the Triton Fountain be shifted some distance away from its location immediately outside Valletta's entrance.

The proposed relocation was announced by the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications in April 2011, and it was meant to create an open space and restore "the architectural and historical context of the entrance to the fortified city".

The approach to the City Gate would be flanked by trees and only accessible to pedestrians, while the fountain was to be restored and shifted to the garden opposite the Hotel Phoenicia, close to the Malta Memorial and the MCP car park.

[20] In December 2011, Minister Austin Gatt announced that the fountain will not be moved, and after restoration it will serve as the centerpiece of Piano's redesigned entrance to Valletta.

[21] The fountain was scheduled as a Grade 1 property by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority on 8 May 2012,[22][11] as one of the "20th Century Modernist Architecture and Monuments in Valletta and Floriana".

The restored Triton figures were sent back to Malta and reinstalled in August 2017, and renovation works of the surrounding square continued until the end of the year.

[26] The restored fountain was finally (59 years late) officially inaugurated on 12 January 2018, by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Keeping it in perfect it condition has been the hallmark of all Permanent Secretaries succeeding Mr. Cutajar namely being Mr. Johan Galea and Mr. Joseph Caruana.

Such is the legacy that is being promoted now that the Triton Fountain has been reinstated as one of the most prominent European landmarks and a centre of applied excellence serving both as a cultural heritage attraction and a manifest of a well-maintained electro-mechanical hydraulic plant.