There are three forms of classic labyrinth – the Cretan one with seven spirals, the Roman labyrinth with right angles and divided into quarters (four inter-communicating labyrinths), and the Christian labyrinth with 11 spirals, of the Chartres type. Ricci chose inspiration from the second one, nevertheless reworking it and introducing little traps here and there – junctions and blind alleys which there weren’t in the strictly unicursal (single-path) Roman labyrinths.

The perimeter is star-shaped, a form which appears for the first time in Filarete’s Treatise on Architecture and was subsequently adopted by Vespasiano Gonzaga in Sabbioneta and the Venetian Republic at Palmanova in Friuli. The maze project underwent a long elaboration with the architect Davide Dutto. There is also a pyramid-shaped chapel inside the maze, a commemoration of the ancient link between mazes and faith.