First criterium: The historical town term

Outgoing from the preindustrial townscape of Europe, thus, the historical town term resulted for the medieval town. Lent in the Middle Ages municipalities with suitable prerequisites of the town titles, which concluded awarding certain municipal rights, e.g. the market right, the right to autonomy, the liberty of the town citizens, "urban air makes free", the right to taxation, jurisdiction, the removal of the body characteristic, the right to levy customs, and the right to enclose and defend.

The sharp separation between town and surrounding countryside was clarified by the municipal law referred to last and the enclosure (usually as city wall) is considered as one of the three spatial criteria, after which a municipality is in the today's statistical sense a town in the historical sense.

The three criteria for the classification of a settlement related to outward features under the term "town" in the historical sense are:

1. There is a wall around the town, with which the entireness and the co-operation of the community as well as their defense are stressed against external effects.
2. It exists a road cross or a market place as intersection of commerce and culture, as well as orientation of the town around a focal point.
3. The town is quartered.

LICHTENBERGER ELIZABETH, 1991