A temporary capital or a provisional capital is a city or town chosen by a government as an interim base of operations due to some difficulty in retaining or establishing control of a different metropolitan area. The most common circumstances leading to this are either a civil war, where control of the capital is contested, or during an invasion, where the designated capital is taken or threatened.
Current
Examples include:
Aden serves as the provisional capital of Yemen since ousted President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi declared it as such in the wake of the 2014–15 Yemeni coup d'état while Sana'a is controlled by the rebel Houthis. Brades acts as the de facto temporary capital of Montserrat since 1998, after the de jure capital of Montserrat at Plymouth in the south of the island was abandoned in 1997 after it was buried by the eruptions of the Soufriere Hills volcano in 1995. Interim government buildings have since been built at Brades, becoming the new temporary capital in 1998. The move is intended to be temporary, but it has remained the island's de facto capital ever since. A new official capital is now being constructed in the Little Bay area.
Proposed
Lviv in western Ukraine was proposed to be a planned de facto temporary capital of Ukraine should the capital city of Kyiv fall to Russian forces during the ongoing invasion.
Historical
Examples include: