The maze is a cultural monument, especially popular with children. Just like the Petřín Lookout Tower, the symbol of the maze is the cherry blossom, referring to the cherry blossoms of the Seminary Garden on Petřín Hill. The maze was built based on a project by architect Wiehl as the pavilion of the Czech Tourist Club during the Prague Jubilee Exhibition of 1891. It was built by Prague’s master carpenter and builder Matěj Bílek. The maze originally stood near the corner of the Industrial Palace, but was moved to Petřín two years later. It is a replica of the former Gothic Vyšehrad Gate called Špička, built in the 14th century by Charles IV and topped with nine turrets. Originally, the front rooms housed a circular panorama with twenty peepholes showing about 100 alternating stereoscopic slides of interesting Czech localities. There was also an exhibition of the club’s tourism and publication activities and an exhibition of tourism products from Czech companies. Next came the diorama, which is a large painting with a three-dimensional foreground depicting the battle between Prague residents and Swedish soldiers on Charles Bridge in 1648, known as the defence of the Old Town Bridge Tower by the Jesuit brother Plachý. The painting spreads over 80 square metres and is the joint work of brothers Adolf and Karl Liebscher, who created it with the help of Vojtěch Bartonek and Karel Štapfer. Karel designed the landscape and architectural parts, while Adolf authored the impressive plot; they painted the whole masterpiece in 50 days. A noteworthy feature is seeing what the left bank of the Vltava River looked like in the mid-17th century. The pavilion was highly popular, and the Czech Tourist Club actually generated a profit from its operation during the exhibition. After the pavilion was moved to Petřín, a mirror maze was installed in the right section instead of the panorama with slides. The maze leads to the diorama painting. It was most likely inspired by the mirror maze at the Prater in Vienna. The second room was later furnished with various convex and concave mirrors. The maze has 35 ordinary mirrors, with 14 mirrors in the Hall of Laughter, 12 of which are distorting. In 1975, Pražská stavební obnova (Prague Building Renovation) and the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts carried out a general reconstruction of the facility.
