Sgraffito is a form of rough decoration produced by scratching. It can be found in Switzerland only in the Grisons, where it adorns village farm homes that exist nowhere else in the world. These homes have sheltered families, animals, hay and manure, against fierce mountain cold. They are built on a bold scale, three or four stories high, with great timbers, stone walls a meter thick, huge arched doorways, yet with small window openings often scattered in a random pattern. The scratched-on “stonework” creates around the windows and doors range from fanciful figurative forms to blocky geometric shapes. When buildings have crooked edges and imperfect angles, this rough kind of decoration takes on an important role. It creates for the eye intervals across vast surfaces. It gives order, rhythm and continuity to seemingly random or chaotic occurrences.