Labyrinth Hill, Paris: a spiral ascension to a gazebo.
Labyrinth Hill is a knoll or hillock, small and round, with a spiral walking path to the top. Formally known as Labyrinthe de Buffon (Buffon Labyrinth), the spiral ascension – slow and steady, and not steep or arduous – was initially designed as an early form of a meditative garden design. No rush, no shortcuts. As you ascend, the path lined with high hedges, just like a labyrinth or maze, offers a changing perspectives of the Paris botanical garden, trees, rooftops of Paris, and finally a looming gazebo.
It is easy to imagine scholars and strollers from centuries past making this climb, pausing to reflect, sketch, or simply breathe. At the summit, the Gloriette de Buffon (Buffon Gazebo) offers shade, stillness, and a quiet reward for your gentle ascension.
Labyrinth Hill is in the Jardin des Plantes (Garden of Plants) in the Latin Quarter of Paris. The elevation ends in an unexpected sight: a delicate, open-air gazebo of wrought iron, full ofsymbolism as it traces the roots of science, nature, and human curiosity.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Count Buffon (1707–1788) was a significant figure in Enlightenment-era science. Count Buffon, a French naturalist, mathematician, and director of the Jardin du Roi – the King’s Garden (now the Garden of Plants), helped transform the gardens into a botanical, zoological, and geological research hub in 18th-century France.
Count Buffon’s writings on evolution and the age of the Earth laid important groundwork for modern biology, well before English naturalist and biologist Charles Darwin (1809-1882).
Buffon Gazebo pays homage to Count Buffon. French architect Edme Verniquet and royal locksmith Claude-Vincent Millett built the Buffon Gazebo between 1786-1787. It is said to be the oldest metallic garden pavilion in Paris. It was constructed using iron from Buffon’s own forges in Burgundy and symbolically crowned Labyrinth Hill to honor his legacy.
Buffon Gazebo incorporates seven metals (iron, gold, silver, copper, lead, tin, and mercury), representing the ancient tradition of alchemy – the medieval practice of transmuting base metals into gold, finding a universal cure for disease, and prolonging life.
It has a delicate armillary sphere – an astronomical device that depicts the circles of heaven, including the horizon, meridian, Equator, tropics, north and south poles, and the eclipse. The armillary sphere once activated a chime that rang at midday, but the chime is now lost.
Buffon Gazebo, with its circular form and open dome, blends science and art, and is a place for contemplation after ascension.
When I visited this morning, a woman was doing her yoga routine, two runners raised their arms at the peak before turning to descend, and a couple with a baby stroller breathed a sigh of relief. Apart from the few people, for a brief moment, I had the gazebo to myself. From here, the busy streets of Paris disappeared.
