The statutory city of Vienna, a community with well over 1.9 million residents, is divided into 23 municipal districts (Gemeindebezirke).
From the Middle Ages until the mid-eighteenth century, the Austrian Empire was an absolute monarchy with no written constitution and no modern concept of the rule of law.
The constitution abolished the estates and called for a separation of executive and judicial authority, crippling most existing regional institutions and leaving district offices as the backbone of the empire's administration.
The first statutory cities in regions that are still part of Austria today were Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck, and Klagenfurt.
Between 1848 and 1867 the empire, its constitution, and its civil administration framework underwent a series of upheavals culminating in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867.
Hungary retained an older system, in which major municipalities could be elevated to royal free city status.
When Hungary ceded Burgenland to Austria in 1921, the region included two of these royal free cities, Eisenstadt and Rust.
Honoring their archaic privileges even though they had lost their significance as population centers, Austria transformed the two towns into statutory cities.