A courtyard is an open space with no roof, completely or partly surrounded by buildings. You might walk through one to reach the rooms of a school, a temple, an old house, or a hotel. It can be quiet, with trees and stone, or just a paved square where people hang washing and park scooters. The court here is the old sense of an enclosed yard, not a judge and not a king. People still use the word in everyday English for that kind of space.