A town is a type of a human settlement . Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities , though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
80-510: Wernigerode ( German pronunciation: [ˌvɛɐ̯nɪɡəˈʁoːdə] ) is a town in the district of Harz , Saxony-Anhalt , Germany . Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode . Its population was 32,181 in 2020. Wernigerode is located southwest of Halberstadt , and is picturesquely situated on the Holtemme river, on the northern slopes of the Harz Mountains . Wernigerode
160-408: A Millionenstadt , a city with anywhere between one and five million inhabitants (such as Cologne , Munich , Hamburg and Berlin ). Also, a city with more than five million inhabitants is often referred to as a Megastadt (commonly translated as megacity ). Historically, many settlements became a Stadt by being awarded a Stadtrecht in medieval times. In modern German language use,
240-537: A further 17 towns , which have merged with a municipal parish ( vallasisene linn ). In Finland, there is no distinction between a town and a city as the word kaupunki is used for both bigger and smaller settlements, which are bigger than villages and boroughs; although when talking about the word town , the word pikkukaupunki is used ( pikku means 'little' or 'small'). There are over one hundred municipal towns in Finland. From an administrative standpoint,
320-898: A common place-name suffix in England and southeastern Scotland during the Anglo-Saxon settlement period. In Old English and Early and Middle Scots , the words ton , toun , etc. could refer to diverse kinds of settlements from agricultural estates and holdings, partly picking up the Norse sense (as in the Scots word fermtoun ) at one end of the scale, to fortified municipalities. Other common Anglo-Saxon suffixes included ham 'home', stede 'stead', and burh 'bury, borough, burgh'. In toponymic terminology, names of individual towns and cities are called astyonyms or astionyms (from Ancient Greek ἄστυ 'town, city', and ὄνομα 'name'). In some cases, town
400-431: A fortress or an enclosure. Cognates of town in many modern Germanic languages designate a fence or a hedge. In English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed, and through which a track must run. In England, a town was a small community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications, and built a palisade or stockade instead. In
480-556: A higher degree of services . (There are a few exceptions, when towns of fewer than 50,000 people gained the status: Érd , Hódmezővásárhely , Salgótarján and Szekszárd ) As of middle 2013, there are only 23 such towns in Hungary. The 2011 Census of India defines towns of two types: statutory town and census town . Statutory town is defined as all places with a municipality , corporation , cantonment board or notified town area committee. Census towns are defined as places that satisfy
560-590: A higher tier of local government, larger towns and cities may have the status of a kreisfreie Stadt , combining both the powers of a municipality and a district. Designations in different states are as diverse as e.g. in Australian States and Territories, and differ from state to state. In some German states, the words Markt ('market'), Marktflecken (both used in southern Germany) or Flecken ('spot'; northern Germany e.g. in Lower Saxony ) designate
640-426: A municipality must have at least 3,000 inhabitants to have the right to request the town title. Market towns usually have between 500 and 4,000 inhabitants, with median and average both around 1,000. In Denmark, in many contexts no distinction is made between "city", "town" and "village"; all three translate as by . In more specific use, for small villages and hamlets the word landsby (meaning 'country town')
720-691: A new minting workshop had been built for 50 guelders. For more than 200 years, both territories were ruled in personal union by the House of Stolberg. Held by the Stolberg-Stolberg line from 1548, the comital dynasty again divided their dominions when in 1710 Count Christian Ernest received the Stolberg-Wernigerode territory from the estate of his uncle Count Ernest of Stolberg . He relocated his residence to Wernigerode Castle which he had extensively restored. Nevertheless, in 1714 he had to acknowledge
800-637: A snow load class of 3 according to the German industrial standard, DIN 1055. Wernigerode was the capital of the medieval County of Wernigerode and Stolberg-Wernigerode . In 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars , it became part of the Prussian Province of Saxony . The Hasseröder brewery was founded in Wernigerode in 1872. After World War II , Wernigerode was included in the new state Saxony-Anhalt within
880-533: A social and technical infrastructure, as well as a population of no fewer than 3500 people. For resort settlements the requirements are lower with the population needing to be no fewer than 1000 people but infrastructure requirements remain. The legal definition of a town in Canada varies by province or territory , as each has jurisdiction over defining and legislating towns, cities and other types of municipal organization within its own boundaries. The province of Quebec
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#1732852217534960-408: A town such as Parun , the capital of Nuristan Province , whose population is less 20,000 people. In Albania and Kosovo qytezë means 'town', which is very similar to the word for city ( qytet ), although there is no official use of the term for any settlement. In Albanian qytezë means 'small city' or 'new city', while in ancient times it referred to a small residential center within
1040-563: A town-like residential community between Gemeinde and Stadt with special importance to its outer conurbation area. Historically those had Marktrecht (market right) but not full town privileges; see Market town . The legal denomination of a specific settlement may differ from its common designation (e.g. Samtgemeinde – a legal term in Lower Saxony for a group of villages [ Dorf , pl. Dörfer ] with common local government created by combining municipalities [ Gemeinde , pl. Gemeinden ]). In ordinary speech, Greeks use
1120-690: Is Stadt , as it is the case in many other languages that do not differentiate between these concepts. The word for a 'village', as a smaller settlement, is Dorf . However, the International Statistics Conference of 1887 defined different sizes of Stadt , based on their population size, as follows: Landstadt ('country town'; under 5,000), Kleinstadt ('small town'; 5,000 to 20,000), Mittelstadt ('middle town'; between 20,000 and 100,000) and Großstadt ("large town"; 100,000 to 1,000,000). The term Großstadt may be translated as 'city'. In addition, Germans may speak of
1200-678: Is Einheit Wernigerode , who competes in the NOFV-Oberliga , and recently qualified for the DFB-Pokal , eventually losing to SC Paderborn 07 0-10. Wernigerode also has had an American Football club, The Mountain Tigers, since 1993. During the last 19 years this team has played in Germany's Oberliga 4 and Regionaliga 3. Since its inception, it has been a mainstay for American football in the Harz region. Wernigerode
1280-555: Is twinned with: Attribution: Town The word "town" shares an origin with the German word Zaun , the Dutch word tuin , and the Old Norse tún . The original Proto-Germanic word, * tūnan , is thought to be an early borrowing from Proto-Celtic * dūnom (cf. Old Irish dún , Welsh din ). The original sense of the word in both Germanic and Celtic was that of
1360-565: Is 9.5 °C (49.1 °F); its average annual precipitation is 500 millimetres (20 in). The warmest months are June to August with average temperatures of 16.0 to 18.3 °C (60.8 to 64.9 °F) and the coldest are December to February at 1.1 to 2.1 °C (34.0 to 35.8 °F). The most rain falls in July, on average 54 millimetres (2.1 in), the least in February, with 30 millimetres (1.2 in) on average. The climate, more precisely
1440-467: Is a de facto statutory city. All the Czech municipalities with more than 40,000 inhabitants are cities. Town and market town are above all ceremonious honorary degrees, referring to population, history and regional significance of a municipality. As the statistics of Czech municipalities shows, towns usually have between 1,000 and 35,000 inhabitants, with median around 4,000 and average around 6,500. Nowadays
1520-547: Is an alternative name for "city" or "village" (especially a small city or large village; and occasionally even hamlets ). Sometimes, the word town is short for township . In general, today towns can be differentiated from townships, villages, or hamlets on the basis of their economic character, in that most of a town's population will tend to derive their living from manufacturing industry, commerce , and public services rather than primary sector industries such as agriculture or related activities. A place's population size
1600-422: Is commonly referred to as a city or as a town, no distinction and no objective legal criteria exist to make such a distinction under law. Ontario allows municipalities to select whichever administrative term they like with no legal distinction existing between towns, townships, cities, and villages. Instead all municipalities, with the exception of Toronto and Ottawa, fall into one of three legal categories under
1680-520: Is difficult to call the remaining provincial capitals "large towns" as, in general, they are less developed and have shrinking population, some with as few as 30,000 inhabitants. In Bulgaria the Council of Ministers defines what constitutes a settlement, while the President of Bulgaria grants each settlement its title. In 2005 the requirement that villages that wish to classify themselves as town must have
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#17328522175341760-503: Is listed as one of the witnesses to a document issued by Bishop Reinhard of Halberstadt on 18 October 1121. This first appearance of a Wernigerode count is also the first record of the clearing settlement of Wernigerode, whose beginnings, however, date roughly to a century earlier. Wernigerode Castle is first mentioned in 1213 as a castrum and served as the permanent residence of the subsequent Counts of Wernigerode. The counts of Wernigerode remained in possession of important property in
1840-547: Is located on the German Timber-Frame Road . The town lies at about 250 metres (820 ft) above sea level (NN) on the northeastern flank of the Harz Mountains in central Germany , at the foot of their highest peak, the Brocken , on the B 6 and B 244 federal highways and on the railway line from Halberstadt to Vienenburg that links the cities of Halle (Saale) and Hanover . The River Holtemme flows through
1920-550: Is not a reliable determinant of urban character. In many areas of the world, e.g. in India at least until recent times, a large village might contain several times as many people as a small town. In the United Kingdom, there are historical cities that are far smaller than the larger towns. The modern phenomenon of extensive suburban growth, satellite urban development, and migration of city dwellers to villages has further complicated
2000-420: Is partitioned into 2098 municipalities ( German : Gemeinden ) of fundamentally equal rank. Larger municipalities are designated as market towns ( German : Marktgemeinden ) or cities ( Städte ), but these distinctions are purely symbolic and do not confer additional legal responsibilities. There is a number of smaller communities that are labelled cities because they used to be regional population centers in
2080-464: Is unique in that it makes no distinction under law between towns and cities. There is no intermediate level in French between village and ville ( municipality is an administrative term usually applied to a legal, not geographical entity), so both are combined under the single legal status of ville . While an informal preference may exist among English speakers as to whether any individual ville
2160-488: Is used, while the Danish equivalent of English city is storby (meaning 'large town'). For formal purposes, urban areas having at least 200 inhabitants are considered by . Historically some towns held various privileges, the most important of which was the right to hold market. They were administered separately from the rural areas in both fiscal, military and legal matters. Such towns are known as købstad (roughly
2240-554: The House of Stolberg from 1429 until its mediatization to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1806. Nevertheless, the county remained in existence - with one short interruption - until the dissolution of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1918. The counts of Wernigerode had established themselves as relatively independent, aristocratic rulers in the Eastphalian lands north of the Harz range, rivalling with
2320-611: The Salian emperor, Henry IV , preferred to employ mainly free knights and ministeriales from Swabia to encounter the Saxon Revolts , a delegation of former vassals of his noble family appearing on the northern edge of the Harz seems to make sense. Furthermore, the counts of Wernigerode held the Steinberg estates near the Imperial domains of Goslar , on the spur of which Henry IV had tasked
2400-753: The Soviet occupation zone (relaunched in October 1949 as the German Democratic Republic/East Germany ). During the Communist years, the town was very close to the inner German border . Wernigerode became part of the restored state of Saxony-Anhalt in 1990 after German reunification . There are no written sources confirming exactly when the town was established. According to the latest research – for example, by Eduard Jacobs and Walther Grosse – there were no early relations with
2480-491: The 16th century to the comital district ( gräfliche Amt ) of Wernigerode that, for example, had the following tax receipts ( Schoss ) in 1543/44: In toto the Amtmann of Wernigerode collected 5,120 guilders in 1543/44, compared with just 4,247 guelders the year before. Against that the expenditure for the district was 3,456 guelders, leaving a profit of 1,664 guelders. That was a considerable sum, if one considers that in that year
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2560-484: The 1950s, to accommodate exponential population increase. The first new towns included Tsuen Wan and Kwun Tong . In the late 1960s and the 1970s, another stage of new town developments was launched. Nine new towns have been developed so far. Land use is carefully planned and development provides plenty of room for public housing projects. Rail transport is usually available at a later stage. The first towns are Sha Tin , Tsuen Wan , Tuen Mun and Tseung Kwan O . Tuen Mun
2640-533: The 21st century, merged most κοινότητες with the nearest δήμοι , dividing the whole country into 325 self-governing δήμοι . The former municipalities survive as administrative subdivisions ( δημοτικά διαμερίσματα , δημοτικές ενότητες ). Cyprus, including the Turkish-occupied areas, is also divided into 39 δήμοι (in principle, with at least 5,000 inhabitants, though there are exceptions) and 576 κοινότητες . Hong Kong started developing new towns in
2720-492: The Abbey at Corvey ( Weser ) and the abbot there, Warin , instead the town name suggests it was a protected clearance settlement. The first area to be settle was the Klint , where there was a lowland castle , the so-called Schnakenburg . In 1805 the ruins of this castle site were demolished. The only part remaining is Haus Gadenstedt at Oberpfarrkirchhof 12 which dates to
2800-627: The German-Dutch holiday road known as the Orange Route . The Northern Harz Boundary Fault crosses the borough along which runs the watershed between the Weser and Elbe rivers. To the north precipitation flows into the Weser, to the southeast, later northeast, waters flow into the Elbe. This fault line runs through the suburb of Hasserode to the west south west of the city centre and forms the town's castle hill to
2880-494: The Harz range. The inheritance was secured on 30 June 1414. As one of the heirs chosen by the last Wernigerode count, Henry of Stolberg, died young, Count Henry of Wernigerode in 1417 had the people of the county swear fealty to Count Bodo of Stolberg as the future owner of the lordship of Wernigerode. As Count Bodo had the fortune to become the sole Stolberg heir at that same time, it became necessary, however, for him to establish his permanent seat of power at Stolberg Castle . This
2960-647: The Minister of Internal Affairs selects candidates from a committee-screened list of applicants, whom the President of Republic usually affirms by issuing a bill of town's rank to them. Since being a town carries extra fiscal support from the government, many relatively small villages try to win the status of városi rang ('town rank') nowadays. Before the fall of communism in 1990, Hungarian villages with fewer than 10,000 residents were not allowed to become towns. Recently some settlements as small as 2,500 souls have received
3040-504: The Municipalities Act: Single-tier (I.e. towns that are located within a region or county but that are considered separate for municipal purposes such as Hamilton ), lower-tier (i.e. municipalities that are part of a region or county such as St. Catharines ), or upper-tier (i.e. regional municipalities such as Niagara ). Accordingly, many larger municipalities continue to use the title of town due to it better reflecting
3120-715: The National Statistics Institute (INE) as an urban entity with a population from 2001 to 5000 or an area with a population from 1001 to 2000 and an established economic activity. In Czechia , a municipality can obtain the title of a city ( Czech : statutární město ), town ( Czech : město ) or market town ( Czech : městys ). The title is granted by law. Statutory cities (in English usually called just "cities"), which are defined by law no. 128/2000 Coll., can define their own self-governing municipal districts. There are 26 such cities, in addition to Prague , which
3200-550: The Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of the wealthy, which had a high fence or a wall around them (like the garden of the palace of Het Loo in Apeldoorn , which was the model for the privy garden of William III and Mary II at Hampton Court ). In Old Norse tún means a (grassy) place between farmhouses, and the word is still used with a similar meaning in modern Norwegian. Old English tūn became
3280-469: The Saxon count Otto of Nordheim , later his fiercest rival, to construct a castle. In view of the conflict between the emperor and Otto of Nordheim and the political superiority of the pro-imperial nobility at the Harz after Otto's death in 1083, there was a legal succession awarded to Count Adalbert I or to one of his ancestors, achieved by the allocation of estates, at the instigation of Henry IV. Threatened by
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3360-433: The abbeys of Himmelpforten , Ilsenburg and Drübeck , and the villages of Drübeck, Reddeber, Langeln with its Teutonic Order, Wasserleben with its nunnery, and Veckenstedt with its important aristocratic seat ( Adelshof ). The lordship of Wernigerode was thus much more significant than that of the stem county of Stolberg which did not have a single monastery within its borders. The actual county reduced in size during
3440-464: The amounts of precipitation and temperatures, are influenced by the orographic rainfall caused by the Harz Mountains. Because the town lies in the rain shadow ( leeward side ) of the Harz, less precipitation falls here than in similar temperate regions without the protection of a mountain range. In addition the occasional föhn winds that occur result in an increase in temperatures. Wernigerode has
3520-468: The appurtenances of local government (e.g. a police force). In the United States these are referred to as "incorporated towns". In other cases the town lacks its own governance and is said to be "unincorporated". The existence of an unincorporated town may be legally set out by other means, e.g. zoning districts. In the case of some planned communities , the town exists legally in the form of covenants on
3600-469: The beginning of the root word (e.g. nagyváros ) have been normalized to differentiate between cities and towns (towns being smaller, therefore bearing the name kisváros .) In Hungary, a village can gain the status of város ('town'), if it meets a set of diverse conditions for quality of life and development of certain public services and utilities (e.g. having a local secondary school or installing full-area sewage collection pipe network). Every year
3680-541: The castle and town of Wernigerode against the overpowering pressure from their Brunswick neighbours, however, their expectations were not fulfilled in the long run. When they acquired further territories from the Counts of Regenstein in 1343, they held these fiefs as vassals of the Halberstadt bishops and the Wernigerode counts as well as their Stolberg successors were issued with separate deeds of enfeoffment for their estates until
3760-399: The character of the municipality. For example, Oakville (2021 Population: 213,759) is the largest municipality to use the title of town to reflect its largely suburban character while other municipalities such as Richmond Hill (2021 Population: 202,022) have opted to change their status from "town" to "city" to encourage investment. In Chile , towns (Spanish: pueblos ) are defined by
3840-645: The comital House of Regenstein . For more than two centuries from the High Middle Ages , they ruled over extended estates stretching from the Oker river in the west to the glacial valley of the Großes Bruch . The male line finally died out in 1429. In the early 12th century, one Count Adalbert from Haimar near Hanover , first mentioned in 1103 and named comes Adelbertus de villa Heymbere in 1117, appears on just one occasion as Adelbertus comes de Wernigerode , when he
3920-464: The consolidation of large estates during the Roman Empire , the town became the center of large farms. A distinction was created between rustic and urban settlements: In Afghanistan , a city and a town are both referred to as shār ( Dari : شهر ; Pashto : ښار ). The capital of each of its 34 provinces may include a major city such as Kabul whose population is over five million people or
4000-476: The county fell to the counts of Stolberg , who founded the Stolberg-Wernigerode branch in 1645. The latter surrendered its military and fiscal independence to Prussia in 1714, but retained some of its sovereign rights till 1876. The counts were raised to princely rank in 1890. Wernigerode contains several interesting Gothic buildings, including a fine town hall with a timber facade from 1498. Some of
4080-414: The definition of towns, creating communities urban in their economic and cultural characteristics but lacking other characteristics of urban localities. Some forms of non-rural settlement, such as temporary mining locations, may be clearly non-rural, but have at best a questionable claim to be called a town. Towns often exist as distinct governmental units, with legally defined borders and some or all of
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#17328522175344160-478: The difficulty of being able to compare it with any suitable benchmark or population figures. Consequently, it is also probable, that the centres of power of Wernigerode and Haimar existed alongside one another. The family seat of Wernigerode was located in the middle of Imperial domains ( Reichsgut ), and according to the preface of the Sachsenspiegel the counts of Wernigerode descended from Swabia . Since
4240-609: The distant past. The city of Rattenberg for example has about 400 inhabitants. The city of Hardegg has about 1200 inhabitants. There are no unincorporated areas. Of the 201 cities in Austria, 15 are statutory cities ( Statutarstädte ). A statutory city is a city that is vested, in addition to its purview as a municipality, with the duties of a district administrative authority . The status does not come with any additional autonomy: district administrative authorities are essentially just service centers that citizens use to interact with
4320-558: The following criteria: County of Wernigerode The County of Wernigerode ( German : Grafschaft Wernigerode ) was a state of the Holy Roman Empire which arose in the Harzgau region of the former Duchy of Saxony , at the northern foot of the Harz mountain range. The comital residence was at Wernigerode , now part of Saxony-Anhalt , Germany . The county was ruled by a branch of
4400-421: The historical importance, the existence of central functions (education, retail etc.) and the population density of an urban place might also be taken as characteristics of a Stadt . The modern local government organisation is subject to the laws of each state and refers to a Gemeinde ( municipality ), regardless of its historic title. While most Gemeinden form part of a Landkreis ( district ) on
4480-542: The name of their respective seats, and if they were not municipal seats, they would have the category of village. Bulgarians do not, in general, differentiate between 'city' and 'town'. However, in everyday language and media the terms "large towns" and "small towns" are in use. "Large towns" usually refers to Sofia , Plovdiv , Varna and Burgas , which have population over 200,000. Ruse and Stara Zagora are often included as well due to presence of relatively developed infrastructure and population over 100,000 threshold. It
4560-418: The national government, for example to apply for driver licenses or passports. The national government generally uses the provinces to run these points of contact on its behalf; in the case of statutory cities, the municipality gets to step up. In Brazil, since 1938, it was defined that the seat of the municipalities would pass to the category of city and give it the name and the districts would be designated by
4640-611: The neighbouring Welf dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg during the Great Interregnum , the Wernigerode counts lost Imperial immediacy as early as 1268, when they chose to become vassals of the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg and, subsequently, of the Prince-archbishops of Magdeburg in 1381, after a protracted dispute about the former Imperial castle at Pabstorf . The counts had hoped that they would receive greater protection of
4720-563: The present castle was built between 1862 and 1893 by Karl Frühling and includes parts of the medieval building. Brandy , Hasseröder lager, cigars and dyes are among the products manufactured in Wernigerode. Wernigerode is a site of the Harz University of Applied Studies . Wernigerode is the home of the choir Rundfunk-Jugendchor Wernigerode. Wernigerode hosts the Brocken Marathon each October. Wernigerode's most supported club
4800-476: The properties within the town. The United States Census identifies many census-designated places (CDPs) by the names of unincorporated towns which lie within them; however, those CDPs typically include rural and suburban areas and even surrounding villages and other towns. The distinction between a town and a city similarly depends on the approach: a city may strictly be an administrative entity which has been granted that designation by law, but in informal usage,
4880-411: The quaint old houses which have escaped the numerous fires through the years are elaborately adorned with wood-carving. The Gerhart-Hauptmann Gymnasium , occupying a modern Gothic building, is the successor to an ancient grammar school that existed until 1825. The castle ( Schloß Wernigerode ) of the princes of Stolberg-Wernigerode rises above the town. The original was built in the 12th century but
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#17328522175344960-417: The rank of town (e.g. Visegrád, Zalakaros or Gönc) and meeting the conditions of development is often disregarded to quickly elevate larger villages into towns. As of middle 2013, there are 346 towns in Hungary, encompassing some 69% of the entire population. Towns of more than 50,000 people are able to gain the status of megyei jogú város (town with the rights of a county ), which allows them to maintain
5040-536: The region between Hildesheim , Burgdorf and the Steinwedel Forest until the end of the 14th century. The extent of those estates has led to conjecture that the comital estate at the foot of the Harz in Wernigerode was even greater and more valuable still, encouraging the counts to abandon their old seat in Haimar and settle here. Nevertheless, estimates of the size and wealth of the comital estate are always hampered by
5120-425: The residential estates of Stadtfeld, Burgbreite and Harzblick as well as the villages of Benzingerode , Minsleben , Silstedt , Schierke and Reddeber . The borough measures 9.5 kilometres (5.9 mi) from west to east and 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from north to south. Its highest point is the Brocken , at 1,141 metres (3,743 ft) above NN, and its lowest is at 215 metres (705 ft). The town lies on
5200-557: The same meaning as borough albeit deriving from a different etymology) and they retain the exclusive right to the title even after the last vestiges of their privileges vanished through the reform of the local administration carried through in 1970. In Estonia , there is no distinction between a town and a city as the word linn is used for both bigger and smaller settlements, which are bigger than villages and boroughs. There are 30 municipal towns ( omavalitsuslik linn ) in Estonia and
5280-430: The smallest level of local authorities are all called communes . They can have anywhere from a handful to millions of inhabitants, and France has 36,000 of them. The French term for town is bourg but French laws generally do not distinguish between towns and cities which are all commonly called villes . However, some laws do treat these authorities differently based on the population and different rules apply to
5360-514: The south east of the city centre. The town of Wernigerode is divided into the town itself, including the villages of Hasserode and Nöschenrode incorporated before 1994, and five villages with their own local councils that were integrated after 1994: Benzingerode , Minsleben , Reddeber , Schierke and Silstedt . Wernigerode is located in the Central European transition subzone of the temperate climatic zone. Its average annual temperature
5440-421: The term is also used to denote an urban locality of a particular size or importance: whereas a medieval city may have possessed as few as 10,000 inhabitants, today some consider an urban place of fewer than 100,000 as a town, even though there are many officially designated cities that are much smaller than that. 193 countries have been involved in a common effort to agree on a common statistical definition of
5520-607: The three big cities Paris , Lyon and Marseille . For historical reasons, six communes in the Meuse département exist as independent administrative entities despite having no inhabitants at all. For statistical purposes, the national statistical institute ( INSEE ) operates a distinction between urban areas with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants and bigger communes, the latter being called villes . Smaller settlements are usually called villages . Germans do not, in general, differentiate between 'city' and 'town'. The German word for both
5600-455: The three categories: cities, towns and rural areas. Australian geographer Thomas Griffith Taylor proposed a classification of towns based on their age and pattern of land use . He identified five types of towns: Through different periods of recorded history, many towns have grown into sizeable settlements, with the development of properties, centres of culture, and specialized economies. Çatalhöyük , currently an archaeological site,
5680-631: The town and, not far from its western gate, it is joined by the Zillierbach stream, which is also known as the Flutrenne near its mouth. North of the town the Barrenbach flows through several ponds and empties into the Holtemme in the village of Minsleben. The historic town centre consists of an old town and a new town ( Altstadt and Neustadt ). The town's borough includes Hasserode , Nöschenrode ,
5760-595: The transfer of the Halberstadt territories to the Brandenburg electors by the 1648 Peace of Westphalia . Count Henry of Wernigerode was the last male representative of the dynasty. He demanded from Archbishop Günther II of Magdeburg the enfeoffment of the castle and town of Wernigerode for himself and his two Stolberg cousins Henry and his brother Bodo the Elder , then ruling over the Thuringian County of Stolberg south of
5840-675: The walls of a castle. In Australia, most rural and regional centres of population can be called towns; many small towns have populations of less than 200. The smallest may be described as townships. In addition, some local government entities are officially styled as towns in Queensland , South Australia , Western Australia and the Northern Territory , and formerly also (till the 1990s) in Victoria . The Austrian legal system does not distinguish between villages, towns, and cities. The country
5920-457: The walls of the old town. St. John's Church was built as the parish church of Wernigerode's Neustadt in the last third of the 13th century in the Romanesque style. The counts of Wernigerode, who can be traced back to the early 12th century, were successively vassals of the margraves of Brandenburg (1268), and the archbishops of Magdeburg (1381). On the extinction of the family in 1429
6000-617: The word χωριό ('village') to refer to smaller settlements and the word πόλη or πολιτεία ('city') to refer to larger ones. Careful speakers may also use the word κωμόπολη to refer to towns with a population of 2,000–9,999. In Greek administrative law there used to be a distinction between δήμοι , i.e. municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants or considered important for some other geographical (county seats), historical or ecclesiastical (bishops' seats) reason, and κοινότητες, referring to smaller self-governing units, mostly villages. A sweeping reform, carried out in two stages early in
6080-406: The year 1582. At the time of the first settlelement there was still ancient forest, typical of the Harz, on the heights of the Klint , which had first to be cleared, hence the suffix rode in the town name which means 'clearing'. The town was first mentioned in the records in 1121 in connection with Count Adalbert of Haimar who had moved here from the region near Hildesheim and henceforth
6160-482: Was a setback for the further development of Wernigerode because, after the death of Count Henry of Wernigerode in 1429, no count resided permanently in the town. The demise of Wernigerode was reinforced by the fact that Count Bodo started in 1438, to pledge the castle and its associated lordship. It was a very lucrative fief that included the spiritual fiefdom of the Monastery of St. George and St. Sylvester at Wernigerode,
6240-498: Was considered to be the oldest inhabited town, or proto-city , that existed from around 7500 BC. Inscribed as a World Heritage Site , it remains a depopulated town with a complex of ruins. In Roman times , a villa was a rural settlement formed by a main residential building and another series of secondary buildings. It constituted the center from which an agricultural holding was administered. Subsequently, it lost its agricultural functions and reduced its activity to residential. With
6320-534: Was intended to be self-reliant, but was not successful and turned into a bedroom community like the other new towns. More recent developments are Tin Shui Wai and North Lantau (Tung Chung-Tai Ho) . In Hungary there is no official distinction between a city and a town (the word for both in Hungarian is város ). Nevertheless, the expressions formed by adding the adjectives kis ('small') and nagy ('large') to
6400-472: Was titled the Count of Wernigerode. On 17 April 1229 the settlement was granted town rights along the lines of that for Goslar . In 2004 Wernigerode celebrated the 775th anniversary of that occasion. As a result of the immigration of new townsfolk from the surrounding villages a new settlement, later called Neustadt , grew up on the northeastern edge of the old town. It was a farming settlement that lay outside
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