Free Imperial City
In the Holy Roman Empire, a Free Imperial City (Freie Reichsstadt) was a self-ruling city that enjoyed Imperial immediacy, and as such, was subordinate only to the emperor, as opposed to a territorial city or town (Landstadt) which was subordinate to a territorial lord - such as a lay prince (duke, margrave, count, etc.) or an ecclesiastical prince (prince-bishop, prince-abbot).
Free Imperial Cities were Imperial Estates and had representation in the Reichstag.
Read more about Free Imperial City: Distinction Between Free Imperial Cities and Other Cities, Origin, Development
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“There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together; they do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slaves are free from their masters.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 3:17-19.
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A wholly materialistic city is nothing but a dream incarnate. Venice is the world’s unconscious, a miser’s glittering hoard, guarded by a Beast whose eyes are made of white agate, and by a saint who is really a prince who has just slain a dragon.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)