Town privileges in the context of Privilege (legal ethics)

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. According to the 2022 census, the population of Belgrade city proper stands at 1,197,114, its contiguous urban area has 1,298,661 inhabitants, while population of city's administrative area (which roughly corresponds to its metro area) totals 1,681,405 people. It is one of the major cities of Southeast Europe and the third-most populous city on the river Danube.

Belgrade is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe and the world. One of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region and, after 279 BC, Celts settled the city, naming it Singidūn. It was conquered by the Romans under the reign of Augustus and awarded Roman city rights in the mid-2nd century. It was settled by the Slavs in the 520s, and changed hands several times between the Byzantine Empire, the Frankish Empire, the Bulgarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Hungary before it became the seat of the Serbian king Stefan Dragutin in 1284. Belgrade served as capital of the Serbian Despotate during the reign of Stefan Lazarević, and then his successor Đurađ Branković returned it to the Hungarian king in 1427. Noon bells in support of the Hungarian army against the Ottoman Empire during the siege in 1456 have remained a widespread church tradition to this day. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottomans and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo. It frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.

New Amsterdam (Dutch: Nieuw Amsterdam, pronounced [ˌniu.ɑmstərˈdɑm]) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading factory gave rise to the settlement around Fort Amsterdam. The fort was situated on the strategic southern tip of the island of Manhattan and was meant to defend the fur trade operations of the Dutch West India Company in the North River (Hudson River). In 1624, it became a provincial extension of the Dutch Republic and was designated as the capital of the province in 1625. New Amsterdam became a city when it received municipal rights on February 2, 1653.

By 1655, the population of New Netherland had grown to over 2,000 people, with a 1,500 majority residing in the city of New Amsterdam. By 1664, the population of New Netherland had risen to almost 9,000 people, 2,500 of whom lived in New Amsterdam, 1,000 lived near Fort Orange, and the remainder in other towns and villages.

The bourgeoisie are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted with the proletariat by their wealth, political power, and education, as well as their access to and control of cultural, social, and financial capital.

The bourgeoisie in its original sense is intimately linked to the political ideology of liberalism and its existence within cities, recognised as such by their urban charters (e.g., municipal charters, town privileges, German town law), so there was no bourgeoisie apart from the citizenry of the cities. Rural peasants came under a different legal system.

Minsk (Belarusian: Мінск, pronounced [mʲinsk] ; Russian: Минск, pronounced [mʲinsk]) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk region and Minsk district. As of 2024, it has a population of about two million, making Minsk the 11th-most populous city in Europe. Minsk is one of the administrative capitals of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

First mentioned in 1067, Minsk became the capital of the Principality of Minsk, an appanage of the Principality of Polotsk, before being annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1242. It received town privileges in 1499. From 1569, it was the capital of Minsk Voivodeship, an administrative division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of the territories annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793, as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland. From 1919 to 1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became a republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Minsk became the capital of the newly independent Republic of Belarus.

The burgher class was a social class consisting of municipal residents (Latin: cives), that is, free persons subject to municipal law, formed in the Middle Ages. These free persons were subject to city law, medieval town privileges, a municipal charter, or German town law. After the fall of the estate monarchy, this social class, more often referred to as the bourgeoisie (from French: bourgeoisie – city residents) and less often as the burgher class, generally refers to town or city inhabitants. Due to the ideological and pejorative connotations of the terms 'burgher class' and 'bourgeoisie,' modern sociology prefers to use the term 'middle class.'

Gradually, within the burgher class, a wealthy stratum emerged, engaged in banking and overseas trade, organized in guilds and trading companies. The rise of this stratum is associated with the beginning of capitalism.

A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (charter) establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages.

Traditionally, the granting of a charter gave a settlement and its inhabitants the right to town privileges under the feudal system. Townspeople who lived in chartered towns were burghers, as opposed to serfs who lived in villages. Towns were often "free", in the sense that they were directly protected by the king or emperor, and were not part of a feudal fief.

This is a complete list of the 2,056 cities and towns in Germany (as of 1 January 2024). There is no distinction between town and city in Germany; a Stadt is an independent municipality (see Municipalities of Germany) that has been given the right to use that title. In contrast, the generally smaller German municipalities that do not use this title, and are thus not included here, are usually just called Gemeinden. Historically, the title Stadt was associated with town privileges, but today it is a mere honorific title. The title can be bestowed to a municipality by its respective state government and is generally given to such municipalities that have either had historic town rights or have attained considerable size and importance more recently. Towns with over 100,000 inhabitants are called Großstadt, a statistical notion sometimes translated as "city", but having no effect on their administrative status. In this list, only the cities' and towns' names are given. For more restricted lists with more details, see:

• List of cities in Germany by population (only Großstädte, i.e. cities over 100,000 population)
• Metropolitan regions in Germany

Numbers of cities and towns in the German states:

City rights are a feature of the medieval history of the Low Countries, and, more generally, the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. A liege lord, usually a count, duke or similar member of the high nobility, granted to a town or village he owned certain town privileges that places without city rights did not have.

In Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, a town, often proudly, calls itself a city if it obtained a complete package of city rights at some point in its history. Its current population is not relevant, so there are some very small cities. The smallest is Staverden in the Netherlands, with 40 inhabitants. In Belgium, Durbuy is the smallest city, whilst the smallest in Luxembourg is Vianden.

The German town law (German: Deutsches Stadtrecht) or German municipal concerns (Deutsches Städtewesen) was a set of early town privileges based on the Magdeburg rights developed by Otto I. The Magdeburg law became the inspiration for regional town charters not only in Germany, but also in Central and Eastern Europe who modified it during the Middle Ages. The German town law (based on the Magdeburg rights) was used in the founding of many German cities, towns, and villages beginning in the 13th century.

Altdorf (Swiss Standard German pronunciation: [ˈaltˌdɔrf] ) is a municipality in Switzerland. It is the capital of the Swiss canton of Uri and retains historic town privileges. It is the place where, according to the legend, William Tell shot the apple from his son's head.

Altdorf is situated on the right (eastern) bank of the Reuss, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) south of where the river discharges into the Urnersee, an arm of Lake Lucerne. It is at the junction of two major Alpine passes—Saint Gotthard to the south and the Klausen Pass to the east—and is the last station on the Gotthard railway before the line enters the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest railway tunnel.

Warsaw Old Town, also known as Old Town, and historically known as Old Warsaw, is a neighbourhood, and an area of the City Information System, in the city of Warsaw, Poland, located within the district of Śródmieście. It is the oldest portion of the city, and contains numerous historic buildings, mostly from 17th and 18th centuries, such as the Royal Castle, city walls, St. John's Cathedral, and the Barbican, the Old Town Market Square and the Warsaw Mermaid Statue. The settlement itself dates back to between the 13th and 14th centuries, and was granted town privileges c. 1300.

During World War II, the Old Town was nearly totally destroyed, and subsequently reconstructed. The project was the world's first attempt to resurrect an entire historic city core and was included on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1980. The reconstruction efforts were again recognized in 2011 when all its documents and records were added by UNESCO to its Memory of the World international register.

Marburg (/ˈmɑːrbʊərk/; German: [ˈmaːɐ̯bʊʁk] or [ˈmaʁbʊʁk] ) is a university town in the German state (Land) of Hesse and the capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (Landkreis). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximately 76,000.

Having been awarded town privileges in 1222, Marburg served as capital of the landgraviate of Hessen-Marburg during periods of the 15th to 17th centuries. The University of Marburg was founded in 1527 and dominates the public life in the town to this day.