Obec (plural: ''obce'') is the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

and Slovak word for a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

(in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, in

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

and abroad). The literal meaning of the word is "

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

" or "

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

". It is the smallest administrative unit that is governed by elected representatives. Cities and towns are also municipalities.

Definition

Legal definition (according to the Czech

code of law A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...

with similar definition in the Slovak code of law) is: ''"The municipality is a basic territorial self-governing community of citizens; it forms a territorial unit, which is defined by the boundary of the municipality."'' Every municipality is composed of one or more

cadastral A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented graphically in a cad ...

areas. Every municipality is composed of one or more administrative parts, usually called town parts or villages. A municipality can have its own flag and coat of arms.

Czech Republic

Almost whole area of the republic is divided into municipalities, with the only exception being military training areas. The smaller municipalities consist only of one village. A municipality has mostly the same name as the settlement which is the most populated and where is the municipal office. However there are several exceptions, for example municipalities created by merger of formerly separate municipalities (like

Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav (; german: Brandeis-Altbunzlau) is an administratively united pair of towns in Prague-East District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants and it is the second larges ...

Orlické Podhůří Orlické Podhůří is a municipality in the Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 700 inhabitants. Orlické Podhůří lies approximately north-west of Ústí nad Orlicí, east of Pardubice, and ...

). A municipality can obtain the title of a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

( cs, statutární město),

town A town is 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. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

( cs, město) or

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

( cz, městys). While all of them are municipalities from the point of view of the law, they are usually referred by its title and not as municipalities, and municipalities without status are called just municipalities. Statutory cities can have self-governing subdivisions, so-called city parts or city districts, which have standing partly similar to municipalities. Town and market town are above all ceremonious honorary degrees, referring to population, history and regional significance of a municipality. History and regional significance are reasons, why a small municipality can have the status of a town or market town, and why more populated municipalities don't have any status. A special type of municipality is the capital

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, which has simultaneously the status of a municipality and the status of a region and which is treated by special law. The law makes it possible to restitute by request a status of town for every municipality which lost it (during communist period). A municipality, which want to acquire status of town and never was a town before, must have population over 3,000 and the improvement in status is subject of assessment by chairman of the parliament. For market town status, population is not a condition. The newest Czech town is

Miličín Miličín is a town in Benešov District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria ...

, which obtained the status in 2022. Some of municipalities have extended competencies of delegated state administration for the territory of the municipality and for surrounding municipalities.

Statistics

The smallest municipalities by area are Závist (0.42 km²) and

Strukov Strukov is a municipality and village in Olomouc District in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 200 inhabitants. Geography Strukov lies approximately north of Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, ...

(0.53 km²). The biggest are the cities of

(496.21 km²),

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

(230.18 km²) and

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...

(214.23 km²), and the town of

Ralsko Ralsko (german: Roll) is a town in Česká Lípa District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,100 inhabitants. It comprises area of the former military training area with Hradčany Air Base. Because of the former military ...

(170.23 km², including a former military area, with only about 2,000 inhabitants).

List of municipalities

* List of municipalities in the Czech Republic: A – I * List of municipalities in the Czech Republic: J – M * List of municipalities in the Czech Republic: N – Ř * List of municipalities in the Czech Republic: S – Ž

Slovakia

As of 2020, there are 2,890 municipalities in Slovakia, with 141 of them being a city or a town. After meeting certain conditions such as population over 5,000, being well accessible, having cultural or economical significance and having an urban style of settlement an obec can be declared a town ("mesto").

References

External links

List of municipalities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia