The earliest architect to apply this sculptural embellishment to the façades of buildings is said to have been Enrique de Egas, a native of Brussels, trained in the Gothic style, who was supervising architect of the Cathedral of Toledo. Among the gems which he contributed to the Early Spanish Renaissance are the =College of Santa Cruz= in Valladolid, built for Bishop Mendoza, and the =Hospital= of the same name, erected by Cardinal Pedro Mendoza in =Toledo=, which served as a model for the =University of Salamanca=. All three of these edifices are celebrated for the magnificent decoration of their principal portal: the one in Salamanca being specially notable for the device adopted to offset the effect of foreshortening in the ornament remote from the eye. For the depth of the cutting is graduated from flat relief in the lowest panels up to a bold enrichment of light and shade at the top. Another feature of these buildings, particularly fine in the two earlier ones, is the interior court or _patio_. =Patio.=--The importance of the patio is a distinctive characteristic of Spanish architecture, deriving, not from the _cortile_ of the Italian palace, but from the _atrium_ of the Roman villa, preserved in the courts of Moorish buildings. The patio is surrounded on all four sides by colonnades of two stories into which all the rooms open, while approach to the second floor is given by a handsome staircase. A characteristic feature is the use of bracket columns, a well-known example being in the patio of the =House of Miranda= in =Burgos=. Sometimes, in the second story, an arcade is substituted for columns and entablature, as in the =Casa de Zaporta=, also known as the Infantado Palace, in =Guadalajara=. Frequently the columns and surfaces of the patio are richly decorated with plateresque ornament, for the patio was the centre of the life and ceremony of the family. And this habit of domestic seclusion, inherited apparently from Moorish times, reacted on the exterior of the buildings; and, while the patio was luxuriantly decorated, a singular barrenness characterised the façades. Thus the chief feature of the latter was the entrance doorway; the windows were few, small in size, and raised high above the level of the street, while occasionally a portico was added under the roof, where the inmates could take the air and view the outside life without themselves being seen. A famous example of this is seen in the =college= erected for =Cardinal Ximenes= in =Alcala de Henares= by the Castilian architect, Alonzo de Covarrubias, son-in-law of Enrique de Egas. He also designed the =Archbishop’s Palace= in the same city and the celebrated =Chapel of the New Kings= in the =Toledo Cathedral=.