Talk:List of countries with multiple capitals

message: There's any reference setting Punakha like Bhutan's de facto capital.  In Thimphu page there are descriptions of government settings in this city, but nothing in Punakha page...Luís Gracindo 7:08, 04 Jun 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Unless someone can come up with a reliable source(s) that states Punakha currently serves as Bhutan's capital is some respect, I intend to delete the Bhutan entry, at least as a nation that *currently* has more than one capital. --Mike Beidler 16:28, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bhutan

message: Chile has only one Capital, I read the article in english of what a Capital is, and I think that it is wrong to designate Chile as having two capitals, just because the Congress is in another city. So far I understand, the location of the Congress does not determine the location of a Capital. Chile should be removed from this list, becasue it distorts reality, and is not accurate according to chilean legislation.--3BRBS (talk) 01:09, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: No one has replied my comment in two years. I think this article is probably an original investigation an presents a point of view that is no neutral. I'm adding the sign :) 3BRBS (talk) 19:24, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Now that Chile has been removed from the list it is still highlighted in the map! Aminabzz (talk) 03:59, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

text: Yes the only capital of chile is Santiago. The only country in South America is Bolivia -La Paz and Sucre. 80.194.167.24 (talk) 16:47, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Chile]] 

message: I forgot to write a summary for my last change, which was to add a statement about Jerusalem/Tel Aviv...I still haven't figured out how to change summaries if you forget to write them.  My apologies.
I wasn't sure exactly how to integrate that information into the page.  I basically echoed what had been done with the statement about Japan.  I think the situation in Israel is probably unique, in that the country itself designates one capital, but most of the rest of the world recognizes a different one.  If we want a list of "temporary wartime capitals", we could also add Tel Aviv to that, but I'm not sure how often that has happened.
:Someday I will learn to sign posts on these pages.  The above was mine.  Creidieki 20:52, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Israel 

message: Japan has had other capitals as well ... I believe Nara (Heijo-kyo) is generally considered to be Japan's first permanent capital.  Depending on how you define capital Japan has had many others as well: Fujiwara-kyo, Asuka, etc. CES 06:38, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: The article is about countries that have had multiple capitals at the same time. So if a country has had a capital from year x to y and then another one from y to z, that can't be a country with multiple capitals. Aminabzz (talk) 10:26, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

text: they literally have Tokyo and Kyoto 166.205.222.16 (talk) 15:33, 24 September 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Japan 

message: Should you want to visit the Sri Lankan Parliament, you will find it in the Columbo metropolitan area.
:incorrect, it changed to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte in 1982. While colombo is de facto commercial capital it has no constitutional roll as a captital an is only commercial capital is the same way that New York is commercial capital of the US. And i don't see the US listed as a country with more than one capital. I am going to remove sri lanka from the page unless anyone has any objections. ----GreatestrowereverTalk Page 13:18, 20 October 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Not that I disagree with removing Sri Lanka (I don't), but how on Earth is Kotte not in the Colombo Metropolitan Region? Colombo says that the region is defined as the districts of Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara. —JAO • T • C 22:09, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, it is physically in the area known generally, to the outside world, as "Colombo".  But to locals, it is not considered to be in Colombo, but in Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, or Kotte for short.  This distinction applies to other parts of what would generally be considered to be part of Colombo, such as Wattala.  If you go there, you'll find it on the main road between the airport and the CBD, and only 8 miles from the CBD, and for most practical purposes it is indistinguishable from the Colombo area.  But the locals never refer to it as "Colombo", always as "Wattala".  Many cities are divided into different administrative areas run by different local authorities.  Take Sydney, for example.  The City of Sydney runs only the inner area including the CBD, and other cities such as the City of Randwick, the City of Parramatta and various others, run other parts of the Sydney greater metropolitan area.  A person from Parramatta would be quite correct in saying they're from "Sydney" (used in its broad, general sense), and if the NSW Parliament were located in Parramatta (rather than in the CBD of Sydney), nobody would object to saying that "The NSW Parliament is situated in the capital, Sydney".  But Sri Lankans think about these things in their own way, and we have to respect that.  --  JackofOz (talk) 23:14, 31 May 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, definitely. We should certainly not call Kotte "part of Colombo" without further specification, if locals wouldn't do that. I just reacted to the statement that it was incorrect to call Kotte part of the "Columbo [sic] metropolitan area". Assuming the term is used for the Colombo Metropolitan Region as defined in the Colombo article, that's not incorrect by any stretch of the imagination. —JAO • T • C 00:48, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sri Lanka 

message: But Winchester was never the capital of the UK. It was the capital of England, though. Marnanel 15:12, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  United Kingdom 

message: According the the main article on Tanzania there is a case for including that country here. William Avery 19:32, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tanzania 

message: I've seen sources that the capital was Kovno from 1918 or 1919 to 1940 (subsequently and currently Vilnius) - the Wikipedia entry for Kovno has that it was temporarily a capital, but isn't clear about the dates.
:Lithuanians always call it Kaunas, Poles Kowno, Kovno is Russian. The story is very complicated. First, a source showing it was what is called the Provisional Capital of the Republic of Lithuania: Harrison's Lithuania, available on archive.org. Here's what happened, from memory: The Lithuanian Republic was proclaimed in Vilnius/Wilno in 1919 with Vilnius as its capital. The Republic of Poland contested the claim, and during fighting with Russian Bolsheviks Poland de facto administered the entire region around Wilno and a large chunk of White Russia, aka Belarus. This can be seen on numberous maps on the internet from the period. Poland called rump Lithuania Central Lithuania or somesuch, see Czeslaw Milosz for more on that. Rump Lithuania was forced to set up termporary capital in Kaunas for the duration of its period of independence while there were multiple disputes in the League of Nations about the status of Wilno/Vilnius and plebicites/referenda planned. When the Mutual Assistance Pacts between the Soviet Union and the Baltic states led to actual Red Army troops based in the Baltic states, and a Lithuanian People's Government petitioned Moscow for inclusion as a constituent republic in the USSR, a Berlin-based Lithuanian opposition group formed a government in exile. The organization in Berlin was the Lithuanian Activists Front. Back in the Lithuanian SSR Stalin, now in control of the eastern marches under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, gave Vilnius back to the Lithuanian SSR. The LAF had Nazi support and planned to use the German invasion to declare themselves the de facto government in Lithuania, which they did, in Kaunas. The LAF Provisional Government pledged allegiance to Adolf Hitler and sought to enter WWII on the Axis side. The Germans appreciated their help in organizing Lithuanians to kill Jews, but did not need or want a competing nationalist base of power inside their occupied territory in the east. So the capital of Lithuania in the modern period was briefly the declarative capital Vilnius ca. 1919, followed by the de facto provisional capital of Kaunas till 1940. Depending on whom you ask, Lithuania either disappeared in 1940 and remained disappeared until 1990, or briefly came back to life in summer of 1941, under the provisional government at the provisional capital Kaunas, from late June to mid-August. The provisional government maintained that Vilnius was Lithuanian and the Lithuanian capital, but didn't have time to move many boots there, only some pro-Nazi state security staff. Historically, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was in Trakai (Troky in Polish) before it moved to Vilnius. Kernave is considered an even older capital than Trakai but not on much firm basis if you ask me. So a good bit of it depends on how you interpret history: for 50 years the only sovereign Lithuanian territory was a few small offices in Rome and Washington, D. C. Hypatea (talk) 14:33, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Villanus  is the only capital of Lithuania 80.194.167.24 (talk) 16:51, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lithuania 

message: Ireland is regarded as a nation whereas Northern Ireland is certainly not regarded as a nation. Ireland should be re-included on the list of nations with two capitals.
:Regarded by whom? (The whole island is not, for example, regarded as one state by the constitution of the Republic of Ireland; see Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of Ireland.) Marnanel 01:11, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ireland 

message: Shouldn't Tuvalu be on this page, too? Its article seems to say that Vaiaku, Fongafale and Funafuti are its capitals. Adam78 03:09, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Vaikaku is a village on the islet of Fongafale, which is part of the atoll of Funafuti. There's only one capital -- it's just a matter of scale. ;) —Nightstallion (?) Seen this already? 17:46, 7 April 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Micronesia has had multiple capitals, if only administrative. Hypatea (talk) 14:35, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Tuvalu]]? 

message: Manila is the only legal capital. Perhaps it can be reworded. --Howard the Duck 14:04, 14 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Philippines]]? 

message: I also cannot find any documented evidence that Cetinje serves currently as Montengro's capital in any capacity.  In lieu of evidence, I am deleting reference to it.  --Mike Beidler 17:06, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think you mean Montenegro, not Macedonia. -- (Shocktm | Talk  | contribs.) 21:21, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

text: Heh.  You're right.  Boy, am I tired today.  Fixed.  ;-)  --Mike Beidler 23:38, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think Cetinje warrants an inclusion, as a city specifically mentioned in the constitution of the country. The constitution uses the term glavni grad (which is the usual Serbian word for capital) for Podgorica and prestonica (which I am having a hard time translating, but I think it's meant to mean "seat of the head of state") for Cetinje. -- Jao 16:15, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Quoting Constitution of Montenegro: "Article 7, THE CAPITAL CITY AND ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRE. The administrative centre of Montenegro shall be Podgorica. The capital city of Montenegro shall be Cetinje."  --Serguei Trouchelle 16:28, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, I have seen that translation before, but that doesn't mean it's not a strange translation. Glavni grad (literally "main city") is the word which Serbs use when English-speakers say capital (see http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Француска or any other country article in the Serbian Wikipedia, for example). It seems very out of place to translate it into "administrative centre" in this, and only this, situation. -- Jao 19:34, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Montenegro]]

message: Is there any documentation from official (i.e., South African government) sources that South Africa has three capitals, as opposed to one "official" capital (i.e., Pretoria) and two other cities that serve as hosts to one of the three branches of government (i.e., Cape Town and Bloemfontein)?  --Mike Beidler 19:04, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: [[South Africa]]

message: Russia too can be added in the list? The constitutional court is transferred to Saint Petersburg. Yuriy75 (talk) 15:28, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Russia]]

message: A discussion has been started at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Countries/Lists of countries which could affect the inclusion criteria and title of this and other lists of countries.  Editors are invited to participate. Pfainuk talk 12:06, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: New Discussion

message: had multiple capitals. Shouldn't these be added? See the footnote 1 in the infobox of es:Corona de Castilla for a start.--189.62.166.199 (talk) 18:23, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Crown of Castile|Castile and Leon]] and early Spain 

message: Since some countries have recognized the rebel government, it might be added that Libya, to a certain extent, has 2 capitals. Tripoli is the "official" capital, while Benghazi is the "rebel" capital. 99.59.26.174 (talk) 05:48, 13 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Libya 

message: Switzerland has also another Judicial capital, Lausanne. Actually depending on the case it can also be Bellinzona, Luzern or St. Gallen. I wonder whether it makes any sense to list Judicial capitals. Pkoppenb (talk) 17:28, 10 February 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Switzerland 

message: Saudi Arabia has two capitals: Riyadh (political capital) and Mecca (religious capital)   — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.192.183.132 (talk) 11:50, 15 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Saudi Arabia 

message: Until Berlin became the capital, Bonn was the capital of Germany, not West Berlin, as is currently stated in the article. West Berlin was not even part of West Germany, although it was perceived as such. Bonn was not just the administrative seat of the government; it was the capital of West Germany. 80.71.142.166 (talk) 21:42, 30 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Germany 

message: Seoul and Sejong City (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejong_City). Sejong is a new "de facto administrative capital of South Korea" 
-Ciscorucinski (talk) 10:42, 13 September 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed. Will await further consensus before making edits. Additionally it still says Seoul on the South Korea page, so until that takes into effect I don't think we should add it here. DrJosh999 (talk) 01:17, 12 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  South Korea 

message: Bolivia has only one capital, Sucre. The general population, the media, research centers, the chancellery, and the office of the presidency speak and write that the capital is Sucre. 51114u9 (talk) 22:55, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: As the lead says, "the seat of government and executive capital is La Paz". Further, "The Bolivian seat of government moved to La Paz at the start of the twentieth century, as a consequence of Sucre's relative remoteness from economic activity after the decline of Potosí and its silver industry and of the Liberal Party in the War of 1899." If "capital" is a term meaning "seat of primary government entities", then La Paz is a capital of Bolivia, whether or not the country's constitution says so. Largoplazo (talk) 23:17, 27 April 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Bolivia]] 

message: I would like to point out that Czechia legally only has one capital (in fact, if you told most Czechs that Brno is supposedly a "second capital" they would be very confused). The capital city is defined by Act. no. 131/2000 Col., known as the Law on the Capital City of Prague. In fact the full name of Prague is Hlavní město Praha - Capital City of Prague. The capital is defined by the law and not by where institutions are hosted. Brno plays host to several institutions as a result of an effort to decentralise from Prague. In fact in 2019 the parliament debated moving quite a few other government institutions out of Prague to the thirteen regional capitals outside of Prague. However, this wouldn't mean that Czechia would have 14 capitals - legally there is still just one capital, as defined by the above-mentioned law. I would therefore propose fixing the map on this article to remove Czechia.
--Avenflight (talk) 19:38, 6 July 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Any contribution I make to this discussion would probably mirror the discussion I already participated in last year at Talk:List of national capitals/Archive 2#Inclusion of seats of government outside of a country's main capital. That thread began with a complaint that someone has removed a bunch of non-capitals from the list, with the plaintiff arguing that they belonged because some national governmental institution was located in each of them. My comment "Following your rationale as stated here, we'd be calling half the localities within 30 miles of Washington, D.C. "capitals" because some U.S. office or other is located in each of them. This is not 'List of localities where a nation has at least one of its institutional headquarters'" sums up my opinion there and here. Largoplazo (talk) 23:29, 6 July 2021 (UTC)

text: Czechia isn’t a country. Checkeslovakia was a group of countries and Czech Republic is a country but not Czechia. Its capital is Prague 80.194.167.24 (talk) 16:53, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: "Czechia" is the official English short-form name of the Czech Republic. Largoplazo (talk) 17:00, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Czechia 

message: The preamble to the tables says some countries have a single legally defined capital whereas others have multiple capitals with no official preference of one over the other(s). 
Please can the tables clarify which applies in each case? Robertm25 (talk) 14:34, 8 November 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Please clarify whether there's a legally defined official capital(s) or not 

message: Even if *de jure* Berlin is the only German city mentioned as “Hauptstadt der Bundesrepublik Deutschland”, at least *de facto* it is its judicial/constitutional capital, where its two highest courts, the Federal Constitutional Court and Federal Court of Justice, are located. Not really different from Sucre or Bloemfontein in this sense. VVVBoldrini (talk) 11:12, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Should Karlsruhe be considered a German capital? 

message: I cannot edit the page, but Côte d'Ivoire has been very adamant about not wishing to be called the Ivory Coast, and as such, and it would be more accurate to change its name to reflect this. 2603:7080:D23B:832:7C87:B840:592F:8892 (talk) 21:05, 30 July 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: We have a rule called WP:COMMONNAME, whereby we default to whatever the most commonly-used name is. Even their article is named Ivory Coast. — Czello (music) 21:06, 30 July 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Does this rule also apply to trans people when they change their names, that one must continually refer to them by their more commonly known name? How do you determine what "most commonly used" is? 2603:7080:D23B:832:7C87:B840:592F:8892 (talk) 12:39, 1 August 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: In any case in my view such a change should be made first on the main Ivory Coast page (which also has redirects from Côte d'Ivoire). A quick look there shows this point has been brought up repeatedly but has not gained consensus for change. Arnoutf (talk) 14:51, 1 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ivory Coast  

message: Some countries are highlighted in the map, but aren't in the table. Aminabzz (talk) 04:08, 16 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Countries in the map