[2] The gardens are located on the upper tier of Saints Peter and Paul Bastion, which was built in the 1560s.

The garden's terraced arches were built in 1661 by the Italian knight Fra Flaminio Balbiani.

[3] The gardens were originally used to offer recreation to the knights of the Italian langue of the Order of Saint John, but were opened to the public following the end of the two-year French occupation of Malta in 1800.

A replica of the statue Les Gavroches (the Street Boys) by the Maltese sculptor Antonio Sciortino is also located in the garden.

[5] The lift can be seen in operation in the 1968 British adventure film, A Twist of Sand, based on Geoffrey Jenkins' 1959 novel of the same name.