Statutory city

{{unreferenced|date=December 2007}} A '''Statutory city''' (''Statutarstadt'' in [[Austria]], or ''Statutární město'' in [[Czech Republic]]) is a city with its own [[municipality|municipal]] [[law]] or city [[statute]]. ==Austria== In Austria, a city can request this status if it has more than 20,000 inhabitants. After the [[States of Austria|state]] government and the [[Government of Austria|Federal Government]] agree to grant the status, it is granted as long as it does not endanger any national interests. However, there are smaller ''Statutarstädte'' that were granted this right previously for historical reasons. In particular, the cities of [[Eisenstadt]] and [[Rust, Austria|Rust]], which previously belonged to the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] as [[free city|free cities]], retained their own city statutes in 1921. The Statutarstädte were called urban areas and were treated according to the German [[Gemeindeordnung]] during the period of German occupation and, as such, were given no power over their own municipal constitution. Besides local administration, the responsibilities of a Statutarstadt are to manage the ''[[Bezirk]]'' (English: district), which places the Statutarstadt besides the municipal office as district administration authorities. The [[mayor]] is the head of the municipality as well as the head of the district administrative authority. Here are the Statutarstädte in Austria: * [[Eisenstadt]] (''since 1921, Hungarian free city from 1648)'' * [[Graz]] * [[Innsbruck]] * [[Klagenfurt]] (''since 1850'') * [[Krems an der Donau|Krems]] (''since 1938'') * [[Linz]] (''since 1866'') * [[Rust, Austria|Rust]] (''since 1921, Hungarian free city from 1681'') * [[Salzburg]] (''since 1869'') * [[St. Pölten]] (''since 1922'') * [[Steyr]] (''since 1867'') * [[Villach]] (''since 1932'') * [[Waidhofen an der Ybbs]] (''since 1868'') * [[Wels]] (''since 1964'') * [[Vienna]] (''since 1850'') * [[Wiener Neustadt]] (''since 1866'') ==Czech Republic== There is a very similar model in the Czech Republic (derived from its origin in [[Austria-Hungary]]), where there are 23 Statutory Cities defined by law, in addition to [[Prague]], the capital city which is a de-facto Statutory City. Statutory Cities in the Czech Republic are: *[[Brno]] *[[České Budějovice]] *[[Děčín]] *[[Frýdek-Místek]] *[[Havířov]] *[[Hradec Králové]] *[[Chomutov]] *[[Jihlava]] *[[Karlovy Vary]] *[[Karviná]] *[[Kladno]] *[[Liberec]] *[[Mladá Boleslav]] *[[Most]] *[[Olomouc]] *[[Opava]] *[[Ostrava]] *[[Pardubice]] *[[Plzeň]] *[[Prague]] ''(de facto)'' *[[Přerov]] *[[Teplice]] *[[Ústí nad Labem]] *[[Zlín]] ==Other countries== A similar concept in Germany is called ''[[List of German urban districts|Stadtkreis]]'' or ''Kreisfreie Stadt'', but these cities, such as [[Munich]], do not have a municipal constitution - they use the [[Gemeindeordnung]], a state law differing from [[States of Germany|Bundesland]] to Bundesland. In the English-speaking world, especially in the U.S. state of [[Virginia]], a similar concept is known as [[independent city]]. {{coord missing|Austria}}