The first communautés urbaines were created by the French Parliament on 31 December 1966.
Originally there were only four, found in the metropolitan areas of Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon and Strasbourg.
The purpose of the communautés urbaines was to achieve cooperation and joint administration between large cities and their independent suburbs.
This step often followed failed attempts to merge the communes within a metropolitan area.
[1][2] All of the urban areas in France with more than half a million inhabitants are a communauté urbaine or a métropole.