free city

English

Noun

free city (plural free cities)

1. (chiefly historical) Any of various types of city of Europe from classical to modern times, characterised by relative autonomy and/or being responsible only and directly to a king or emperor; a more modern city of such type, sometimes elsewhere than in Europe.
   • 1727, Nathaniel Lardner, Credibility of the Gospel History, 1815, The Works of Nathaniel Lardner, D.D., Volume 1, Thomas Hamilton, page 124,

     Pliny calls ^e Tarsus a free city: which is an incontestable proof it was not a Roman colony, for then he would have called it so.

   • 1835, Free Cities, article in Francis Lieber, Edward Wigglesworth, T. G. Bradford (editors), Encyclopædia Americana, Volume 5, New Edition, page 311,

     The remnants of this^[Hanseatic] league, with the former confederacy of cities, which had its representatives in the German diet, and the free cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck, were incorporated with the French empire in 1810. As these cities coöperated vigorously in the recovery of German independence, they were acknowledged, together with Frankfort, as free cities, by the congress of Vienna. […] Besides these four free cities in Germany, Cracow (q. v.) was likewise declared a free city by the general act of the congress of Vienna, and is under the protection of Russia, Austria and Prussia.

   • 2009, Matthew Parish, A Free City in the Balkans: Reconstructing a Divided Society in Bosnia, I.B. Tauris, page 210:

     The High Commissioner of the Free City of Danzig was a position established under the Peace Treaty of Versailles that concluded World War I.

2. A special economic zone.

Usage notes

• In historical contexts, a free city might be:
  • A city state;
  • A self-governed city of the Hellenistic period or the Roman imperial era;
  • A free Hanseatic city;
  • A free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire;
  • A royal free city of the Kingdom of Hungary;
  • Any of certain relatively autonomous cities, especially one on the model of a free Hanseatic or free imperial city.
• Certain cities continue to use free city in their official names.
  • Free City of Bremen (aka Free and Hanseatic City of Bremen or, informally, Bremen; German, Freie Hansestadt Bremen) is in fact the name of a state in Germany; its capital city is also called Bremen.

Derived terms

• Free City of Danzig

Related terms

• free Hanseatic city, free and Hanseatic city
• free imperial city, free and imperial city
• royal free city, free royal city

See also

• city state

Further reading

• Hanseatic League on Wikipedia.Wikipedia