The Hotel de Cortes (85 Avenida Hidalgo; 585-0322) is a small, two-story hostelry in an 18th-century building that was once a hospice for friars, with a lovely tree-shaded courtyard and some rooms overlooking Alameda Park.

A fountain gurgles in the tree-shaded courtyard, lit by tealights after dark.

Ignoring the porch and terrace scene, we entered a passage that leads to the tree-shaded courtyard of the Jardin Nelson (named after Admiral Horatio, whose statue on a column at the top of the square had been removed for restoration).

It has 10 rooms in a series of adobe buildings scattered around a tree-shaded courtyard; each room has a private bath and a comfortable little porch.

The wood panelling, simple wooden chairs and chequered tablecloths create a quaint and cosy interior, complemented by a tree-shaded inner courtyard.

In the same tree-shaded courtyard where he later addressed reporters, King Sihanouk received 124 poor farmers who had traveled here from their village four days ago hoping to catch a glimpse of him.

Mr. Graizel said buyers seem to be attracted by the direct waterfront position of the building and its open configuration: It is shaped like a slim doughnut with a large tree-shaded courtyard in the middle.

Located in the Federal Hill neighborhood of downtown Baltimore and hidden behind eleven narrow rowhouses, Chandler's Yard is a tree-shaded courtyard that was carved out of the backyards of the surrounding homes by developer Bill Struever who wanted to make living on the block more attractive to potential buyers.

Café de Vieux Conseil (Rue de Vieux Conseil; 211 0393), popular with ex-pats and the business community, retains a casual colonial ambience in a tree-shaded courtyard carefully concealed from the cacophony of town.

The new embassy in Berlin is to have roof gardens, a tree-shaded courtyard, and a split facade to allow columns of light to fall onto Pariser Platz.