For example the town i live is ‘Twinned’ with a random town in France, but there are many local towns twinned with other towns all over Europe beyond.
In: 19
British soldiers wanted to help French towns demolished during the fighting during War2 and set up links:
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/interactive/twin-towns-yorkshire#main-page-section-1
Whatever it used to be, it now seems to be an excuse for local dignitaries to have free holidays
Instead of learning about random cultures in school, kids get to learn about their twin town and exchange letters with kids who are learning about them.
But mostly, it’s just fun tourist publicity.
There’s no major reason – it’s a fun little program to encourage cooperation and community between twinned towns.
It was originally a post-WW2 thing between the UK and France, which is why most twinnings are between UK and French towns.
It was formally crested after the war as a further way the unify different communities in Europe since they’d been through the war also and would have little access to such connections otherwise.
The idea is tourism+improved social standing. If your from one town your might think it would be nice holiday to visit it’s “twin” and would be more likely thing think more positively about that place/country since your have a positive connection to it.