Lake Merritt Labyrinth
Oakland, California, United States
At the edge of Lake Merritt in Oakland, the country's first wildlife refuge turned city centerpiece, a community-built permanent labyrinth lies in the park's lawn near the water. Oakland walkers keep it swept, decorated, and used; it is one of the best-loved civic labyrinths on the West Coast.
At the edge of Lake Merritt in Oakland, the country's first wildlife refuge turned city centerpiece, a community-built permanent labyrinth lies in the park's lawn near the water. Oakland walkers keep it swept, decorated, and used; it is one of the best-loved civic labyrinths on the West Coast. The Labyrinth Locator's record lists it as a three-ring Chartres work; installed February 1992.
Every labyrinth is a walking practice, not a puzzle: a single path winds to a center and back out, and the walk is done slowly, as prayer or meditation. The pattern descends from the medieval pavement labyrinth at Chartres, and the modern urban revival began in the 1990s when Lauren Artress brought replicas of that path to American congregations and public grounds through Veriditas and the Labyrinth Society, whose World-Wide Labyrinth Locator now catalogs thousands. There is no branching and no trick to the path; walkers of every religion and none use it.
Visiting
facebook.com carries the community group for the walk.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories