Santa Venera, where Valletta's water used to pass

Santa Venera is one of those Northern Harbour councils that blend into their neighbours without you noticing. Take the bus out of Valletta and by the time you’ve passed Ħamrun, you’re here. It earns its place in this guide because of water.

A small, very Maltese town

At the end of 2025 Santa Venera had 10,006 residents according to the NSO, 248 more than a year earlier, and 7,115 of them were Maltese. That’s a very different mix from the Sliema and St Julian’s coast, where foreign residents are the majority. At 11,046 people per km², it’s tightly packed, a place of neighbours’ streets, and it’s growing like most of this part of the island.

The Wignacourt Aqueduct

Valletta was founded in 1566 on a peninsula with no good water supply, and the rainwater collected inside the city wasn’t enough. The fix was an early 17th-century aqueduct named after Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt. According to Wikipedia, which isn’t an official source, its arches still stand in several towns, Santa Venera among them, and it had water towers in Santa Venera, Ħamrun and Floriana.

The piece with official backing is the tower. The Maltese government’s Restoration Directorate has a page on the Wignacourt Aqueduct Tower, or Turretta ta’ San Ġużepp, in Santa Venera, which served as an inspection point on the aqueduct. I couldn’t read that page, because the site wouldn’t open for me, so I’m not giving construction dates, opening times or if the inside is open to visitors. What I will say is that it’s one of the few civil works of the Knights that isn’t a fortress or a church, and that makes it interesting to me. Who Wignacourt was and what the Order left behind is covered in my guide to the Knights of Malta.

The aqueduct gateway

Wikipedia also says that an ornamental gateway was built where the aqueduct crossed the road between what is now Fleur-de-Lys and Santa Venera. Fleur-de-Lys is a district the MTA register lists separately, with just two holiday lets. I have no official source on the gateway’s current state, so I won’t send you to it as if it were an open monument; if you’re passing, look out for the arches and judge for yourself.

Fitting it into a trip

Santa Venera has no licensed hotels, just 10 holiday lets, according to the MTA on 28 September 2026. I’d treat it as a short detour on the way inland. The towns around it have direct buses from Valletta, such as the 42 through Ħamrun, the railway town and Birkirkara, or the 62 towards Qormi, the bread town, so you can get here without a car. Summer fares are €2.50 a journey, winter ones €2.