# Adjacent capital cities **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745 "2013-10-31T12:58:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/41 "2013-11-02T12:52:34Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The Vatican City _is_ the capital of the Vatican States, though: the States aren’t limited to the City. No, the State is indeed limited to the city. They’ve got a castle or church here and there outside the city, but the Lateran Treaty makes it clear that these are on Italian, not Vatican, territory. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/42 "2013-11-02T13:09:10Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > No, the State is indeed limited to the city. They’ve got a castle or church here and there outside the city, but the Lateran Treaty makes it clear that these are on Italian, not Vatican, territory. Hence the official name of the entity: Stato della Città del Vaticano, Vatican City State, or circumscribed in a somewhat more cumbersome, but also clearer, way: State of the City of Vatican. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/43 "2013-11-03T07:35:36Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Oh, I know by European standards it’s quite a distance, but people tend to think of London and Paris being a _reaaaaaaallly_ long way away from each other - not a 90 minute train trip. > > I suspect the English Channel and being on a separate continent has a lot to do with the perception the two cities are a lot farther apart than they really are. A separate continent? Have we finally been annexed as the 51st state and nobody told me?! Paris really isn’t that far away. My wife’s fairly unfit aunt cycled there in four days this summer, for charity. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/44 "2013-11-03T08:54:50Z")
To list another, not as well know, pair of really close national capitals: Helsinki, Finland, and Tallinn, Estonia, are about 80 kilometres apart. Of course, during the Cold War the iron curtain cut through right between these cities, but nowadays there is regular ferry service connecting the two cities. In addition to that, depending on your views about the statehood of Northern Cyprus (which is not internationally recognised, but there is an argument to be made in favour of the position that this does not negate Norther Cyprus’ statehood), you could say that the southern part of the divided city of Nikosia is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus and the northern part of the same city the capital of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/45 "2013-11-03T23:51:40Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > It is my understanding that all of these cities fit the definition that you provide in the second sentence of your post: They are the administrative centre of an administrative unit to which they do not belong. It’s not just being part of a metropolitan area irrespective of administrative boundaries, they are also _outside_ the administrative unit they serve, owing to their independent status. I would need to understand more about your examples (I didn’t understand the part “the county administration of [the adjacent county] is located in the city and thus outside the city it serves”, because how does a county administration serve a city?), but the point about Surrey, England is that its administrative centre is physically outside of the county, rather than being in an independent enclave within the county. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/46 "2013-11-04T00:03:51Z")
[TLTE] Also, counties in the UK are bigger administrative units that the districts that I believe you are referring to in Germany. UK counties are the first level of administrative subdivision, and are more like states in terms of population size (although they do not have anything like the level of autonomy of states in federal countries). ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/47 "2013-11-04T09:35:24Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Berlin is also simultaneously a state in it’s own right … And so are Hamburg and Bremen. > [@Schnitte](#): > > … Helsinki, Finland, and Tallinn, Estonia… but nowadays there is regular ferry service connecting the two cities. I would rephrase it “there are regular ferry services”. There are at least four ferry companies, that I can think of, going between the two towns. And during the tourist season there is any number of cruise ships visiting Tallinn. ---
**Author:** ![WilyQuixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@WilyQuixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilyQuixote)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/48 "2013-11-04T10:49:38Z")
Bloemfontein (judicial capital of South Africa and capital of the Free State province) is only 123 km from Maseru, capital of Lesotho. Not quite adjacent but excluding border stop is only about a 90 minute drive. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/49 "2013-11-04T10:58:41Z")
Going by [this distance calculator](http://www.distancefromto.net/), which seems to calculate distance from city centers, I find the closest national capitals to be [ul] [li]Rome – Vatican City 2.7 km[/li][li]Brazzaville – Kinshasa 8 km[/li][li]Vienna – Bratislava 55 km[/li][li]Jerusalem – Amman 72 km[/li][li]Pristina – Skopje 78 km[/li][li]Helsinki – Tallinn 83 km[/li][li]Beirut – Damascus 86 km[/li][li]Basseterre (St Kitts & Nevis) – St John’s (Antigua & Barbuda) 95 km[/li][li]Castries (St Lucia) – Kingstown (St Vincent & the Grenadines) 99 km[/li][/ul] These are all the ones I could find that were less than 100 km, although I’m sure I’ve missed some. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/50 "2013-11-04T18:35:38Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I would need to understand more about your examples (I didn’t understand the part “the county administration of [the adjacent county] is located in the city and thus outside the city it serves”, because how does a county administration serve a city?), but the point about Surrey, England is that its administrative centre is physically outside of the county, rather than being in an independent enclave within the county. Under the legal systems of most German states, most cities form part of a county (or district, as the German term _Landkreis_ is sometimes also translated as). “City” status does not, in itself, denote administrative autonomy. The city councils and the county councils perform different functions. The county administration is typically located in the largest city of the county, and the county takes its name after that city. Some cities have independent status, however, being exempt from the surrounding county. In these cases, the city council of the independent city, in addition to the usual functions any city council performs, also performs the functions of the county council in relation to the city. In other words, in these cases the city and county functions coincide at the same level, whereas in other cases cities and counties are two separate levels of governance with separate functions. Even in these cases, however, there is often an adjacent county named after the independent city, and the administration of the county is usually located in this city as well and thus outside the territory over which it has jurisdiction. There is a number of examples for this set-up in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/51 "2013-11-04T18:38:08Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > And so are Hamburg and Bremen. Very slight nitpick: Bremen is a special case since the state of Bremen comprises two cities: Bremen and Bremerhaven, the latter being an exclave but having its own city council. So in this case, the argument that Bremen is a capital of a state is stronger than it is for Berlin and Hamburg, which consist of just one city each. ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2013, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745/52 "2013-11-05T02:39:37Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Don’t overlook the obvious. Washington, DC to Annapolis, MD is something like 32 miles. WDC isn’t a regional (i.e., state) capital. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjacent-capital-cities/672745.md?page=2)