The garden is conceived
The project was designed as a Chinese classical garden for Santa Luċija, drawing on the traditions of Suzhou garden design.
Parks & Reserves
Garden of
Garden of
Serenity
A piece of Suzhou in southern Malta
The Garden of Serenity feels deliberately separate from the streets around it - enclosed, layered and revealed a little at a time.
Set along Santa Luċija's green belt, the Chinese Garden of Serenity - Ġnien is-Serenità - was created as a gift from China to Malta and opened in 1997.
Its Suzhou-inspired design uses water, rock, planting, walls, bridges and winding corridors to create balance and changing views. The best way to experience it is slowly, letting each doorway and turn reveal the next garden room.
Garden profile
- Character
- Water, rock & pavilions
- Structure
- Garden rooms & corridors
- Entry
- Free
- Best for
- Quiet walks & reflection
A garden built through friendship
From design to a Santa Luċija landmark
The garden is young by Maltese standards, but its story is closely tied to Santa Luċija and to the cultural relationship between Malta and China.
Construction begins
Work began in September 1996 as a gift from the People's Republic of China to the people of Malta.
The garden opens
Prime Minister Alfred Sant officially opened the Garden of Serenity on 7 July 1997.
Restoration and expansion
A major China-Aid restoration and embellishment programme was launched to renovate and expand the garden.
The landscape keeps evolving
The garden continues to evolve through regeneration and nearby additions, while retaining its original Suzhou-inspired character.
A classical garden tradition
Suzhou is famous for its classical gardens, where architecture, water, rock and planting are composed as miniature landscapes. The Malta garden was designed by garden masters from the Suzhou Garden Institute.
Why Suzhou?
Suzhou is famous for its classical gardens, where architecture, water, rock and planting are composed as miniature landscapes. The Malta garden was designed by garden masters from the Suzhou Garden Institute.
The garden
A landscape built around symbolism
The experience comes from movement: what is hidden, what is framed and how water, rock and architecture repeatedly oppose and complete one another. Winding routes and controlled views make this compact garden feel larger than it is.
The bigger picture
Not one garden, but many
The Garden of Serenity is divided into smaller spaces by walls, roofed corridors and built structures. Passing from one area to another is part of the design: each threshold resets the view.
Rock and water are especially important. In Chinese garden philosophy they work as complementary forces - the solid and the fluid, activity and contemplation, the landscape and the life moving through it.
Garden of Serenity map. Tap to open full-screen.
The reflective element
Ponds, channels and moving water open the garden visually and create shifting reflections beneath bridges and pavilions.
The garden's solid counterweight
Stone provides mass, texture and the suggestion of mountains - a miniature landscape compressed into a small urban site.
Frames rather than barriers
Walls, circular openings, doors and corridors hide as much as they reveal, constantly changing how one garden room is seen from another.
What to look for
Once you stop looking for a single main attraction, the details and changing viewpoints become the garden's real focus.
Visit planner
Walk it as a sequence, not a checklist
The garden is compact. The point is not distance, but noticing how each small space changes the mood of the one before it.
Choose a stage
Let the garden close around you
The transition from Santa Luċija's streets into an enclosed garden world is part of the experience.
- Pause at the entrance rather than immediately walking through.
- Notice how walls and structures limit the first view.
- Look for the first contrast between hard stone, planting and water.
Use water as your guide
The pond, bridge and water features anchor many of the garden's strongest views.
- Cross bridges slowly and look back after crossing.
- Notice reflections of roofs, planting and rock.
- Compare open water views with those framed through walls and doorways.
Look through, not only ahead
Openings and corridors turn neighbouring spaces into composed pictures.
- Take the zigzag route instead of finding the shortest line.
- Use circular and shaped openings as frames for the next garden room.
- Notice how hiding part of the garden makes it feel larger.
Finish by doing very little
The pavilions and quieter edges make more sense when you stop treating the garden as something to finish.
- Choose a bench or pavilion with a view across water or planting.
- Listen to how enclosed the garden feels compared with the roads beyond.
- If you have time, continue into neighbouring Ġnien l-Iskultura for a modern companion to the older Chinese garden.
Gallery
Inside the Garden of Serenity
From the entrance and oriental garden to the ponds, courtyards and statues.
Personal notes
My Experience
I come to the Garden of Serenity often, and I still notice how quickly it separates itself from the streets outside. Once inside, everything feels quieter, slower and more self-contained.
What I enjoy most are the transitions: a doorway framing a pond, a corridor bending out of view or a bridge revealing a new angle. The balance of stone, water, planting and architecture always makes me slow down, even though I know the garden well.
Further reading & official information
The Santa Luċija Local Council provides the garden's local listing, Parks in Malta explains its present design and amenities, and government updates document recent regeneration in and around the site.