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Munich claims various international "sister cities"

Twin townsmay refer to one of:

  • Town twinning, two geographically-disparate municipalities which have been paired as twin towns, partner cities or sister cities as part of a cultural, economic or paradiplomatic exchange.
  • Twin cities, two adjacent but distinct municipalities - often on opposite banks of the same river or opposite sides of a border.

Town twinning

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Sister Cities Bridge, Kansas City, Missouri

There are thousands of "twinned town", "partner city" or "sister city" pairs. Many amount to little more than an official municipal proclamation, a plaque at the town hall, a flag raising or a "Welcome to X, twinned with Y and Z" sign at the city limits. Occasionally the city will send a small group on a trip or junket as part of an economic or cultural exchange; often, the task of maintaining the relationship will be passed to a small, non-profit local group.

Most of these efforts have limited or no impact for the average visitor to the city; at best a small student group may be sent abroad occasionally on a cultural exchange, at worst the twin link is proclaimed, posted and promptly forgotten.

Exceptionally, visitors may encounter public artwork or monuments referencing a town twinning; in a few instances, the public is invited to an annual local event with a theme referencing the foreign city or nation.

See

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Romancolumn proclaims twinning withParis.
  • Asister cities bridge,often a footbridge across a small stream with space to fly national flags of international siblings, commemorates twinning relationships to cities includingKansas City (Missouri),Rochester (New York)andRockville(Maryland).
  • Artworkor public sculpture sometimes recognises a twinned municipality.Baltimore(Maryland) proudly displays a Stone Lantern on a pedestal at the Inner Harbour, a gift from its Japanese siblingKawasaki.Romedisplays a column in honour of its exclusive twinning toParis.Seattledisplays a bell on its 1962 World's Fair site (Seattle Center) to represent its twinning withKobe.
  • A localpark,such as Kobe Terrace or Tashkent Park in Seattle, may be named for a twinned sibling. Displays of international flags or directional signage with the distance to each twin are also common.
  • A group ofstreet namesmay reflect sibling relationships, such asCebu City's Sister Cities Drive plus individual roads for each sibling: Kaohsiung Street (forKaohsiung,Taiwan), Salinas Drive (forSalinas,California) and Belgium Street (forKortrijk,Belgium).
  • Signsor markers, often indicating the distance to some or all of the twin towns,Erlangenfor example has a piece of sandstone donated by sister townJenain front of city hall which lists all twin towns and their distance from Erlangen.

Do

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Connect

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  • Romeo(Michigan) andJuliette(Georgia) USA are nottwins(if anything, their respective families are feuding) but this star-crossed pair issue matching seasonalpicture postmarks,as a Shakespeareanliteraryreference on which just the town's name and postcode differ. Valentine's greetings may be stamped, bundled into a larger envelope and sent to the postmaster of either town for re-mailing.

Twin cities

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Often, two towns will grow on opposite sites of a common geographic boundary; the Twin Cities ofMinneapolis-St. Paulreside on opposite banks of theMississippi River.

Occasionally, a political boundary on an arbitrary line of latitude or longitude or along a waterway will inadvertently slice through the heart of an existing community, such as theAlberta-Saskatchewanboundary through the unified municipality ofLloydminster.A unified Lloydminster-style city across a provincial boundary is exceptional; most often, a boundary forces creation of two separate, adjacent, geographically contiguous towns or villages.Beebe Plaincannot be a single unified village if, instead of being primarily inQuebec,surveyors' error placed half the unincorporated village inVermont– in another country.Baarleis divided between Belgium and the Netherlands because of medieval agreements, land-swaps and sales, with the border even running through houses, but is still politically two entities.

In many cases, a pair of twin cities are tightly integrated economically despite maintaining separate, individual identities. This can be the case even across national borders, such as Baarle above orTornioandHaparandainFinlandandSweden.TheNordicpassport union has since the 1950s allowed nationals to freely pass the border and work (or live) on the foreign side, and the towns have made full use of this.

Twin cities are not mere suburbs; the latter are plentiful and largely non-notable. These are pairs of independent free-standing communities of at least roughly comparable stature which each have their own separate, extensive and long-established identity and history.

  • Parana,Entre RíosandSanta Fe,Santa Fe Province are the capitals of their respective provinces and are separated by the Parana River (which is the Santa Fe-Entre Ríos border).
  • MainzandWiesbaden,capitals of the German states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, separated by the river Rhine; two Mainz neighborhoods were ceded to Wiesbaden as a result of redrawn borders following WWII
  • MannheimandLudwigshafenin Germany, separated by the river Rhine.

American twin cities that share the same name are not listed here; see theCross-border town namingsection, below.

Transnational

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  • Bratislava,the capital of Slovakia, andVienna,the capital of Austria, are often referred to as Twin Cities despite their centres being60km (37mi)from each other. Nevertheless, they are the closest located national capitals in Europe (if one does not count the Vatican that iswithinRome) and form a joint economic region. Two other national capitals not far from each other areHelsinkiandTallinn,separated by the70km (43mi)wide Gulf of Finland. There are frequentFerriesbetween the two cities and a long-standing plan to connect them via tunnel.
  • BrazzavilleandKinshasaon the opposite banks of the Congo river are other places where you can be in one national capital and see another.
  • Ciudad del Este,Paraguay;Foz do Iguaçu,Brazil; andPuerto Iguazú,Argentina are on opposite sides of Rio Iguazú and Rio Parana from each other. The convergence of Rio Iguazú and Rio Parana also serves as the border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Rio Iguazú andIguaçu_Fallsdivides Brazil from Argentina while Rio Parana divides Brazil from Paraguay.
  • Copenhagen,the capital of Denmark is separated fromMalmö,Sweden's third largest city, by the Øresund strait but are connected to each other by a continuous tunnel & bridge with a combined length of 11.5 km made for rail and road traffic. Further north (45 km on the Danish side and 64 km along the Swedish side) along the Øresund liesElsinore,Denmark andHelsingborg,Sweden which are only connected to each other by ferry.
  • Dammam,the largest city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia andManamathe capital and largest city of Bahrain can be like 'twin cities' despite their centres being73km (45mi)from each other. Bahrain Island is connected to Saudi Arabia by a25km (16mi)long causeway which allows for continuous travel (except customs & immigration formalities between the two countries).
  • Dandong,China andSinuiju,North Korea are on opposite banks of the Yalu River which defines the Chinese-North Korean border. The border continues upstream along the Yalu River to thePaektu Mountainsand downstream to the east coast along the Tumen River where there are other lesser known towns directly across the river and border from each other.
  • DetroitandWindsor— a pair on theOntario-Michiganborder, synonymous with the North American auto manufacturing industry
  • Esztergom,Hungary andŠtúrovo(Párkány), Slovakia are connected to the each other by the Mária Valéria Bridge spanning over the Danube.
  • Hong KongandShenzhenas well asMacauandZhuhai.
  • Jaigaon,India andPhuentsholing,Bhutan
  • Laufenburg (Germany)is divided fromLaufenburg (Switzerland)by the Rhine;Rheinfeldenis also Swiss-German.
  • Narva(Estonia) andIvangorod(Russia), were for most of their history one single city. There's a fort on both sides of the Narva river that forms the border between the countries.
  • Rivera,Uruguay andSantana do Livramento,Brazil, as well as several lesser-known towns on the border between the two countries. In a lot of these towns the border is nothing more than a grassy divide between two parallel streets with one side in one country and the opposite in the other.
  • Portions of the US-Mexico Border runs along the Rio Grande, also Texas' southern border, which separatesEl PasofromCiudad Juarez;LaredofromNuevo Laredo;McAllenandReynosa;BrownsvillefromMatamorosand a series of other towns directly across the river and border from each other. On the west end of the Mexican-US border areSan DiegoandTijuana.
  • St Louis,France andBasel,Switzerland.
  • TabatingaandLeticiaexist as a contiguous settlement on the same side of the Amazon River but are separated by the Brazilian and Colombian border. The islands in the Amazon River and the opposite bank of the river are in Peru. The Peruvian part of the settlement is onSanta Rosa Island,on the river, next to the Tabatinga/Leticia settlement.
  • SingaporeandJohor Bahru(Malaysia)
  • A portion of the Mekong River separatesVientianethe capital of Laos from the northern Thai City ofNong Khai.

Cross-border town naming

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In some locations, a pair of towns on opposite sides of the same boundary will have the same or similar names:

Transnational

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Divided cities

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Often, a village, town or city existed before the border lines were drawn. On a friendly border this may be harmless;Lloydminsterfunctions as one unified city long after theNorthwest Territorieswas split to form individual provinces includingSaskatchewanandAlberta.Conversely, an unfriendly border or occupation zone (or even the front line of anactive conflict) can forcibly split a community in two, creating a divided city. It is not uncommon for different sectors of the same city to be under the control of different factions ifmilitaryconflict is active and ongoing.

Berlinwas divided into American, French, British and Russian occupation sectors at the end ofWorld War II in Europe,dividing the city onCold WarNATO-Warsaw Pact boundaries until its 1990 reunification. It functioned as two separate cities. TinyMödlareuth,on the then inner-German border betweenThuringiaandFranconia,was also split in two by a wall.

Jerusalemwas once partitioned as the front line of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but is now re-unified.

Sometimes an existing border is redrawn (often following a war) right through an existing town. If both communities are viable, sometimes one or both "halves" will be renamed:

  • Görlitz,Germany andZgorzelec,Poland were separated through the Oder-Neiße line, which is now an open Schengen border
  • Frankfurt an der OderandSłubicewere likewise separated by the Oder-Neiße line, now an open Schengen border
  • Rafah has neighborhoods inEgyptas well as theGaza Strip;the border is closed to regular travel most of the time
  • Nicosiahas been split in half by the Cyprus conflict with the northern part sometimes being called "Lefkosia". The border is controlled but passable to Cypriots and most visitors nowadays.

In other cases, a change in borders after a war has doomed one or both sides of a divided city. SeeGhost towns#War and forced relocation.

Other

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  • Istanbulis divided by the Bosphorus, which at the same time is the border between Europe and Asia. This makes Istanbul the only major city in the world to be located on two continents.
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