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La ciudad en la que está la sede es muy grande.

La ciudad en la que está la sede es muy grande.
The city in which the headquarters is located is very big.
From Lesson 331:Complex relative pronouns (el que, el cual)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about La ciudad en la que está la sede es muy grande.

Why do we use en la que here? Could we just say donde?
Yes, you could definitely say donde (la ciudad donde está la sede). However, en la que (literally "in the which") is very common to mean "in which" or "where". The article la is used to match the feminine singular noun ciudad.
Since this lesson is about complex relative pronouns, could I use en la cual instead of en la que?
Yes, en la cual is perfectly correct here and means the exact same thing. Both are used after prepositions like en, but la cual tends to sound a bit more formal or written, whereas la que is very common in everyday spoken Spanish.
Why do we use está for the headquarters, but es for the city?
This is a great example of the difference between ser and estar. We use estar (está) for the physical location of places and things, such as where la sede is situated. We use ser (es) to describe inherent characteristics, like the fact that the city is muy grande.
The English translation says "headquarters", which looks plural. Why is la sede singular?
In Spanish, la sede is a singular noun meaning "the headquarters" or "the main office" of an organization. Even though "headquarters" ends in an "s" in English, it translates to a singular concept here. If a company actually has multiple headquarters, you would use the plural las sedes.

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