free city

Noun

free city (plural free cities)

1. (historical) 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.
   • 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.1727, Nathaniel Lardner, Credibility of the Gospel History, 1815, The Works of Nathaniel Lardner, D.D., Volume 1, Thomas Hamilton, page 124
   • The remnants of this 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...1835, Free Cities, article in Francis Lieber, Edward Wigglesworth, T. G. Bradford (editors), Encyclopædia Americana, Volume 5, New Edition, page 311
2. A special economic zone.