Chef-lieu

A main town, also central place is the village, which is the economic, intellectual and administrative center of a geographical area, from the perspective of administrative divisions and spatial planning with slightly different meaning.

To distinguish capital and capital

A capital city is usually the chief town of a community, a city, a region or a district, country or state, or of a historic territory ( residence). Mostly it is the administrative seat ( the seat of the head office and the top administration, such as mayors, government, etc.) should not be compulsory, the government center, such as Amsterdam and The Hague in the Netherlands. The capital must not necessarily the largest or most populated place (see Washington, DC in the United States or of Bern in Switzerland ), or the capital as economic- cultural center of the room, and does not even have verwaltungsgliederisch part of the region (such as St. Pölten over Vienna in Lower Austria ), and conversely, the spatial capital of the region not administrative capital. Example of a strong concentration of political and raumgliederischen aspects ( " centralized capital " ) is Paris in France, example of a decentralized concept is the European Union, which, due to the many as peers considered the main places in Europe no, or three major cities within the meaning of concept has ( Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg ). A capital also must not geographically centrally located ( Istanbul, Turkey ). Not every city is also the capital of a region at the same time, but can for the people of the surrounding regions, and regional planning and development that qualify as such if certain parts of the infrastructure are available only in this city. In poorly developed areas, the main locations are typically even outside the actual region (eg in mountain regions at the edge of the mountains, in the respective river basin parent main valley ), which leads to migration and the further strengthening of the capital.

In territorial consolidation usually is the place with the seat of the administrative head of the new capital, as well as in sparsely - populated regions without stray and general center. Political- administrative, intellectual and economic aspects affecting necessarily mutually, so that each draws a aspect in the course of urban development to the other according to (urbanization ) - examples are historical settlements of around monasteries and castles, which then take over its function as its capital, and vice versa start-up or relocation of capitals reasons of economic policy (such as Brasília in Amazonia, Ankara Anatolia ). Prime example of a capital development is Hong Kong, in 1842 installed in a rural region as a trading port and colonial administration, today administrative center of the whole South East Asia and a hub of world trade.

Country-specific

Germany

The administrative headquarters of ( rural) district need not necessarily be located in a city, the seat can also be located in a municipality without a town. In this case, the name is not county town, but the main town circle. Several years ago there was, especially in Bavaria and Lower Saxony county governments in district capitals, for example Wegscheid and Mallersdorf and until 1952 Roding in Bavaria or Westerstede and Wittlage in Lower Saxony. The smallest county capital was the town site to the incorporation into the city Freyung on April 1, 1954 as the seat of the district Wolfenstein. With the resolution of circles in the context of the district reforms (eg resolution of the counties Wittlage, Mallersdorf and Wegscheid in 1972 ) as well as the awarding of city rights, eg to Westerstede on May 28, 1977, these special cases are eliminated for the most part. The only exception to the market in Germany Garmisch- Partenkirchen remains.

Austria

In Austria, the term administrative law does not matter, but in the official statistics. Thus, the term capital defined in the official gazetteer of Statistics Austria:

"When capital is to see those town that acts as a center of the community due to their enrichment with shops, commercial and service institutions, religious, cultural and administrative facilities. This is not always the greatest place or those in which there is the town hall or the church. For formal reasons, a main town is reported by each community, although there are some communities that have seen no capital. "

Switzerland and Liechtenstein

In German-speaking Switzerland can also be a village of the main location because not all Swiss cantons have cities. The main town of some 20,000 inhabitants canton Appenzell Innerrhoden is the village (and not the city ) Appenzell with 5500 inhabitants ( 2002). In cantons whose administrative center is a city, the capital is also colloquially capital, such as Zurich. This is also true for the Liechtenstein capital Vaduz with a little more than 5000 inhabitants. See also Subdivision ( story).

In Switzerland, statistically all cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants are considered urban. Many historic towns ( towns with a medieval law) have significantly fewer inhabitants. Among the historical towns include, for example, Stein am Rhein, Diessenhofen and boughs field or, as extremes, Fuerstenau with less than 1000 and becoming mountain with less than 100 inhabitants.

France

In France, the French equivalent to the main town, chef -lieu, used for the management seats of each type of government and administrative units below that of central government ( regions, departments, arrondissements, cantons and municipalities). - The inhabitants hardly plays a role in some cases, the canton Craonne eg is named after its main town, named a village with only 65 inhabitants ( 2005), while the largest city in the canton ( Corbeny ) ten times as many inhabitants ( 693 in 2006) (but had Craonne 630 inhabitants in 1906 ).

Italy

In Italy, the respective Italian term is capoluogo applied in the same way for the administrative centers of regions, provinces and municipalities.

Sweden

In Sweden, each of the 290 municipalities has a main town (Swedish centralort ), which often bears the same name as the community.