We made only one mistake: the one of Superbia.
One loop around, then enlightenment – we'd been here before. This turn, this boxwood shadow, this perspective on the hedge. The labyrinth of Valsanzibio had caught us, but not in one of the six dead ends representing Gluttony, Lust, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, and Envy. Instead, in the endless loop of Pride, which occupies the entire southeast quadrant of the labyrinth.
Luigi Bernini, brother of the famous Roman sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, knew what he was doing when he designed this garden for Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo in 1665. Barbarigo came from one of Venice's great patrician families and was Bishop of Padua at the time – later becoming a cardinal and eventually canonized.
Pride is not just another deadly sin – it's the root of all others. And its architectural solution is ingenious: not a dead end, but a loop. You move, you make decisions, you feel like you're making progress. Except "progress" here leads nowhere. You're just circling yourself.
It takes humility to recognize you're lost. Only then can you break the loop.
The boxwood labyrinth of Valsanzibio is considered the oldest of its kind in the world. Created between 1665 and 1669, it consists of six thousand evergreen boxwood plants (Buxus Sempervirens), most of which are over 400 years old. The total length of all paths – including dead ends and detours – is about 1.5 kilometers. The boxwood walls cover eight thousand square meters and are trimmed annually.
Luigi Bernini, brother of the famous Roman sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, designed the labyrinth as the central part of a spiritual journey that begins at Diana's Gateway – the monumental entrance to the garden. The labyrinth symbolizes the arduous path to human perfection and challenges visitors to make choices and overcome obstacles to reach the elevated central tower.
The original entrance – placed by Bernini at the end of the Cardo, the central axis, hidden behind high boxwood walls – requires willpower and determination. For the labyrinth also symbolizes the search for virtue, which cannot be achieved easily but demands commitment: porta itineris longissima codicir esse – the entrance to the longest journey.
In the 1930s, a second, less virtuous but more practical access was created through the boxwood walls along the Cardo.
The labyrinth is square, approximately 40 by 40 meters, and consists of four areas: Southwest, Northwest, Southeast, and Northeast. There is a single "straight path" of about 380 meters that avoids all deadly sins and other pitfalls.
From above – from the central tower – everything appears to be on the same level. But that's deceptive. The area where the labyrinth sits is the only part of the garden that wasn't terraced. The terrain naturally slopes from the hills in the west toward the valley in the east. The plants are about 1.65 meters high in the west, at the entrance, reaching over 2.65 meters in the easternmost part, roughly halfway along the "straight path."