What is "mestys"

Městys (or, unofficially or obsolete, městečko) is a status conferred on certain municipalities in the Czech Republic, lying in terms of size and importance higher than that of obec (village municipality, commune), but lower than that of město ( city, town). Sometimes, "město" is translated as "city" (although some of them are relatively small towns) and "městys" is translated as "town" or " market town".

Historically a městys was a locality which had the right to stage livestock markets (and some other "extraordinary" and annual markets), and it is therefore often translated as " market town". The term went out of official use in Czechoslovakia in 1954, but was reintroduced in the Czech Republic in 2006. As of 2009, there are 192 localities on which the status of městys has been conferred.