Oct. 24: On Chartres Cathedral’s 753rd anniversary, here’s a Telluride home with full-scale copy of its labyrinth
Exactly 753 years ago today, the famous Chartres Cathedral in France was dedicated and opened to the world.
And the world came.
Visitors still trek to Chartres to bask in the cathedral’s well-preserved French Gothic architecture, to see the Sancta Camisa—a tunic believed to have been worn by Mary at the time of Jesus’ birth—and to walk the labyrinth installed on the cathedral’s floor.
But France turned out to be a little inconvenient for regular walks along the labyrinth, so Tim Boberg and wife Roxanne Pulitzer had a full-scale replica installed in their home in Telluride, Colo. It was a $60,000 birthday gift that he gave her about seven years ago. (If you're trying to place her name: She bitterly divorced newspaper magnate Herbert Pulitzer back in the '80s, then wrote a tell-all book about it.)
Click here to see a slideshow of the Telluride home with a copy of the Chartres labyrinth.
Boberg actually first came across the labyrinth at a spa in California.
“I found it to be kind of a meditative experience, and so I decided to put one in my own home,” he said. “And I decided I will put one in every home I build from now, until I stop building them.”
He’s actually ready to build his next home, so he’s selling the Telluride abode for $18.5 million. (Click here to go to the listing.) The labyrinth, which measures about 45 feet across, is just one of many unique features: The home also has a bowling alley (another birthday gift for her), an indoor commercial shooting range, a 75-foot-long indoor pool, and a golf fairway and putting green, along with the more usual mega-mansion features like stunning views, lovely landscaping with water features and a seven-person hot tub with wet bar.
But until the next mansion is built, he and his wife walk the labyrinth in Telluride three or four times a week. It takes about 20 minutes to walk the whole thing.
Click here to see a slideshow of the Telluride home with a copy of the Chartres labyrinth.
“There’s something about walking it that puts your mind in that Zen state,” Boberg said. “I learned two ways: If you have a particular issue or question, ask the labyrinth for an answer and then put the whole thing out of your mind and walk it and quite often answers will come to you. Or you can open your mind and see what happens.”
Ilyce Glink is an award-winning, nationally syndicated real estate columnist, blogger and radio talk show host, and managing editor of the Equifax Finance Blog. Follow her on Twitter @Glink.
