Looking for a bit of garden drama? Considering losing the lawn but unsure what to do instead with that flat expanse? Need an infusion of peaceful contemplation in your life? Although these questions might seem to have little in common, the answer to them all is thousands of years old yet one of the latest trends in landscape designs, the labyrinth.

As a landscape designer, I love the idea of imposing a pattern on a space that can be experienced physically. While walking the labyrinth, we become part of the pattern. The inclusive nature of garden mazes is very appealing.

Labyrinthine motifs are cross-cultural mythic references that have persisted through the ages. Ancient Egypt may have seen the birth of this architectural concept in monuments having complex passageways leading to tombs of kings. In Mediterranean countries these motifs can still be seen as decorative borders on columns and in paving. Romans brought the pattern to France and England on coins and etched stone. Labyrinth patterns show up in the floors of Italian and French churches from the Middle Ages and are still apparent in Moorish tile work and hedge gardens of the alcazars of Spain and Portugal.

 

Romantic-era tall yew or cypress hedges were both stylish garden sculpture and places to hold clandestine meetings. Political power brokers and surreptitious lovers met in the secluded passageways. Children cavorted, solitary nuns paced in silent prayer. The aura of mystery might partly explain the ongoing appeal of labyrinths, though in modern times the cost of the pruning required to maintain hedge mazes limits their survival to historic estate gardens.

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