in the major cities, by the Ministry of Interior. The decree was in effect from 21 April 1927 until 1945, when the entire system was abandoned with the return to democracy. Podesteria Literally this derived word means the office of a podestà or its term, but Podesteria can also designate a district administered by a podestà within a larger state. In the domini di Terraferma that the dogal republic of Venice gradually established in the basin of the river Po, annexing various former principalities and self-governing cities, mostly in the fifteenth century, podesterias (ven. podestarie) were one of the intermediate levels of the hierarchical administrative organization, the highest ('provincial') level being the territorio (roughly a modern administrative region). After the other dogal republic, Genoa, was in 1273 granted control of Pera and Galata, commercial suburbs of Constantinople, by the Byzantine emperor, it governed them jointly by a common podestà until 1453, when all Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. Outside the Italian city-states The example of Italy in the matter of podests was sometimes followed by cities and republics in northern Europe in the Middle Ages, notably by such as had trade relations with Italy. The officers elected sometimes bore the title of podesta or podestat. Thus in East Frisia there were podests identical in name and functions with those of the Italian republics; sometimes each province had one, sometimes the federal diet elected a podest-general for the whole country, the term of office being for a limited period or for life. Frisian potestaat The concept of a local man empowered to represent the Holy Roman Emperor was also a feature of medieval Frisia. From apocryphal beginnings, important rights were granted or confirmed under the code of law known as the Lex Frisionum. According to later tradition, it was Charlemagne who granted the Frisians the title of freemen and permitted them to choose their own podestat or imperial governor from among the chieftains, to organize and lead the defense of two of the three districts of Frisia, in Middle Frisia, from the Flie to the Lauwers and in East Frisia from the Lauwers to the Weser, later the Countship of Ostfriesland. The Italians probably became aware of the Frisian Potestaat, in Dutch "op poten staan" in English 'on legs standing', like for instance king Henry on his painting (Dutch: potestaat, German: Potestat, English: potestate) during the Sixth Crusade in