Sgraffito is an old European method of decorating walls by scratching out designs in two or more layers of contrasting plasters. Very cheap and technically simple but too time consuming for us moderns. Here is an art deco design in Barcelona. 
The delightful 16th century renaissance Castle Litomyšl in Bohemia uses sgraffito to make the plain plastered brick walls look like ashlar stone. Of course you can tell when you get closer, but then it becomes beautiful in a whole new way.
The most famous sgraffito house in the world is surely the Dum U Minuty, a 15th c. gothic turned renaissance pharmacy at the Old Town Square in Prague, where Franz Kafka lived 1889-1896. The sgraffito dates from 1610 but has probably been remade a few times over the centuries.
