and shields, they are depicted in the rhythm of Islamic tradition, which plays an important role in chromatics. Mudéjar often makes use of girih geometric strapwork decoration, as used in Middle East architecture, where Maghreb buildings tended to use vegetal arabesques. Scholars have sometimes considered the geometric forms, both girih and the complex vaultings of muqarnas, as innovative, and arabesques as retardataire, but in Al-Andalus, both geometric and vegetal forms were freely used and combined. Iberian Peninsula With the re-establishment of Christian rule throughout the formerly Muslim controlled areas of Iberia came the different Mudéjar construction methods for creating a building using inexpensive materials like brick, wood, and stucco. It is generally accepted by scholars that Mudéjar art in architecture first appeared in the northern town of Sahagún in the 12th century Christian Kingdom of León. Mudéjar spread to other parts of the Kingdom of León: notable examples can be found in Toledo, Ávila, Segovia, Toro, Cuéllar, Arévalo and Madrigal de las Altas Torres. Later, Mudéjar was spread into southern Spain by the Kingdom of Castile. A particularly fine example of Mudéjar Renaissance is the Casa de Pilatos, built in the early 16th century at Seville. Seville includes many other examples of Mudéjar art. The Alcázar of Seville is considered one of the greatest surviving examples of Mudéjar Gothic and Mudéjar Renaissance architecture although its so-called Mudéjar Rooms are directly related to the Moorish Nasirid architecture of the Alhambra rather than to Mudéjar art techniques; the Christian king Pedro of Castile employed architects from the then Islamic Emirate of Granada to construct them. Mudéjar art emerged in the north-eastern Christian Kingdom of Aragon in the 12th century and includes more than a hundred surviving examples, located predominantly in the valleys of the Ebro, Jalón and Jiloca. Its first manifestations have two origins: on the one hand, a palatial architecture linked to the Christian monarchy, which amended and extended the originally Moorish Aljafería Palace and maintained an Islamic ornamental tradition, and on the other hand, a tradition that developed Romanesque architecture using brickwork rather than stone construction and which often displays Hispanic ornamental tracery. Examples of the latter type of Mudéjar elements can be seen in churches in Daroca, which were started in stone and finished off in the 13th century with Mudéjar brick panels. Portugal commissioned fewer Mudéjar decorated buildings, which generally incorporated simpler Mudéjar elements. The Church of Castro