free city

Noun

 * 1)  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.
 * 2) * 1727,, 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.
 * 1) * 1835, Free Cities, article in Francis Lieber, Edward Wigglesworth, T. G. Bradford (editors), , 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.
 * 1) A special economic zone.
 * 1) 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.