Administrative centre

The capitals of Algerian provinces, districts, and communes are called chefs-lieux.

The chef-lieu in Belgium is the administrative centre of each of the ten provinces of Belgium. Three of these cities also give their name to their province (Antwerp, Liège and Namur).

The chef-lieu of a French department is known as the prefecture (préfecture). This is the town or city where the prefect of the department (and all services under their control) are situated, in a building also known as the prefecture. In every French region, one of the departments has preeminence over the others, and the prefect carries the title of préfet de la région (lit. 'Prefect of the Region') or préfet du département (lit. 'Prefect of the Department') and the city where the regional prefect is found is known as the chef-lieu of the region or, more commonly, the . The services are, however, controlled by the prefecture of the department.

The chef-lieu of an arrondissement, commonly known as the sous-préfecture is the city or town where the sub-prefect of the arrondissement (and the services directly under their control) are situated, in a building called the sub-prefecture. The arrondissement where the department prefecture is located does not normally have a sub-prefect or sub-prefecture, the administration being devolved usually to the secretary-general of the departmental prefecture, who functions as sub-prefect for the arrondissement.

The chef-lieu of a canton is usually the biggest city or town within the canton, but has only a nominal role. No specific services are controlled by it. In past decades, there was always a gendarmerie, a treasurer and a justice of the peace.

Many of the West African states which gained independence from France in the mid-20th century also inherited the French administrative structure of departments and communes, headed by a chef-lieu. States still using chef-lieu to identify the administrative headquarters of a government subdivision include Senegal, Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, and Niger.^[1]

Taking Niger and Mali as examples, the administrative subdivisions down to the commune level each have a formal place of administrative headquarters, titled the chef-lieu. The larger portion of the terminology of administrative division is inherited from colonial rule as part of French West Africa, and has survived and been somewhat modified over time. In both nations there have been remarkably parallel histories.^[2] Since decentralization began in both nations in the 1990s, the chef-lieu transitioned from the location of the governor, commandant, or prefect and their staff to the location of the commune, cercle, department, and regional councils and a variety of decentralized bodies.^[3][4] The chef-lieu of a region, cercle or department is usually also a communal chef-lieu. Both nations also established a supreme council of local government authorities (Haut conseil des collectivités territoriales) seated at the nation's capital. Smaller subdivisions in Mali's communes (villages, tribal councils, and quarters) are administered from a place (lit. 'site'), so the chef-lieu is literally the 'chief-place' even at the lowest level.^[5][6]

In Jordan, the administrative centres are known as chief towns or nahias.^[7] Nahias may be in charge of a sub-district (qda), a district (liwa), or a governorate (muhafazah).

Luxembourg is divided into four electoral constituencies, twelve cantons, as well as 100 communes (Luxembourgish: Gemengen). Cantons have each a chef-lieu and are named after it. The same is true for each commune which is composed of more than one town or village. Usually, with a few exceptions, the commune is named after the communal chef-lieu.

In Russia, several million-plus cities in federal districts have the official status of an administrative centre: Moscow (as the main city of the Central Federal District), Vladivostok, Volgograd, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Pyatigorsk, Rostov-on-Don and St. Petersburg. The main cities of regions and municipal districts are also called unofficially the administrative centre or simply the centre. The only exception to this rule is the republics, for which the term "capital" is used to refer to the seat of government. The capital of Russia is also an entity to which the term "administrative centre" does not apply.

In Sweden there are two levels of administrative centre; the local municipal and the regional county.

The term chef-lieu is applied to the capital of each Swiss canton. In 16 of the 26 cantons, the territory is subdivided into districts. Every district's capital is also termed a chef-lieu and each has a prefect.

The term chef-lieu is used to designate the capital of each governorate of Tunisia. Each of the 24 governorates is subdivided into delegations which each have a central city as the chef-lieu of the delegation.

In the United Kingdom, an administrative centre is the centre of a local authority, which is distinct from the county town of a historic county. For example, the administrative centre where the county council of Lancashire sits is Preston, even though the county town is Lancaster.

• The Fiancée of the pirate (1969) is a film by Nelly Kaplan, where the action takes place in a hamlet where everyone spends their time worrying about what everyone thinks about the chef-lieu of the town.

• County seat, administrative centres in the U.S.
• County town, administrative centres in Ireland and the UK
• Local government
• Seat of government