Katastry

Katastry is a term with multiple meanings in property administration, geography, and literature. In administrative geography, it is often a variant spelling of cadastre, the systematic recording of land parcels, boundaries, owners, and values. A katastry typically underpins land taxation, title registration, and urban planning by providing a parcel-based map and register for a given jurisdiction. Because English usage favors cadastre, katastry is rarely used in contemporary legal texts, though it appears in some translations and specialized writings.

Linguistic and historical notes: the word is usually heard as a cognate of cadastre or catasto, with roots tied to the idea of a listed register of land. The exact etymology varies by language, but the underlying concept remains consistent: an inventory of real property and its attributes.

In fiction and cultural contexts, katastry may be employed as a proper noun—a place name, organization, or thematic symbol related to order, cataloging, or governance of space. Such usage is authorial and not canonical across sources, and many works replace it with the standard term cadastre.

See also: cadastre, cadastral survey, land registry, property title.