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Frazione
 
 
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A frazione, in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune
Comune

In Italy, the comune, is the basic administrative division of both provinces and regions, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality....
; for other administrative division
Administrative division

|align="right"| |}Administrative divisions are divisions of a political division. In other words, they are designated portions of a country....
s, see municipio
Municipio

Municipio and munic?pio are terms used for subnational entity. They are often translated as municipality....
, circoscrizione
Circoscrizione

Circoscrizione can refer to two different administrative units of Italy. One is an electoral district approximating to the English "constituency" but typically the size of a province or region depending on the election....
, quartiere
Quartiere

A quartiere is a subdivision of certain Italy towns. The word is from quarto, or fourth, and was thus properly used only for towns divided into four neighborhoods; from it is derived the English word "quarter" to mean a neighborhood ....
. It is cognate
Cognate

Cognates in linguistics are words that have a common etymology origin.An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt vs....
 to the English word fraction, but in practice is roughly equivalent to "parish
Civil parish

In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a civil parish is usually the lowest unit of local government, below district and county councils....
es", "hamlets
Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural Human settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community....
" or "wards" in other countries.

cally the frazioni cover villages surrounding the principal town (the capoluogo) of a comune.






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A frazione, in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
, is the name given in administrative law to a type of territorial subdivision of a comune
Comune

In Italy, the comune, is the basic administrative division of both provinces and regions, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality....
; for other administrative division
Administrative division

|align="right"| |}Administrative divisions are divisions of a political division. In other words, they are designated portions of a country....
s, see municipio
Municipio

Municipio and munic?pio are terms used for subnational entity. They are often translated as municipality....
, circoscrizione
Circoscrizione

Circoscrizione can refer to two different administrative units of Italy. One is an electoral district approximating to the English "constituency" but typically the size of a province or region depending on the election....
, quartiere
Quartiere

A quartiere is a subdivision of certain Italy towns. The word is from quarto, or fourth, and was thus properly used only for towns divided into four neighborhoods; from it is derived the English word "quarter" to mean a neighborhood ....
. It is cognate
Cognate

Cognates in linguistics are words that have a common etymology origin.An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt vs....
 to the English word fraction, but in practice is roughly equivalent to "parish
Civil parish

In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a civil parish is usually the lowest unit of local government, below district and county councils....
es", "hamlets
Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural Human settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community....
" or "wards" in other countries.

Description

Typically the frazioni cover villages surrounding the principal town (the capoluogo) of a comune. Subdivision of a comune is optional, some comuni have no frazioni, but others have several dozen.

In practice, most frazioni are small villages or hamlets, occasionally a mere clump of houses, although being such a place is not requisite. Nor is every hamlet a frazione; those that are not are often referred to as località, for example in the telephone book. In some occasions frazioni can be more populated than the capoluogo of the comune. Very occasionally, due to unusual circumstances or to the depopulation of the capoluogo, the town hall and its administrative functions can move to one of the frazioni: the comune, however, still retains the name of the capoluogo.

History

Historically, many frazioni came into being during the Fascist
Fascism

Fascism is a Political radicalism, Authoritarianism Nationalism ideology that aims to create a single-party state with a government led by a dictator who seeks national unity and development by requiring individuals to subordinate self-interest to the collective interest of the nation or Race ....
 period, when a major effort was made to consolidate and rationalize the territorial subdivisions of the country. Sometimes, a frazione represents a former comune felt at some point to be no longer viable.

Formerly, they were established, and their borders defined, by the central government, except in the case of the five autonomous regions
Autonomous area

An autonomous area is an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or freedom from an external authority. Typically it is either geographically distinct from the country or is populated by a national minority....
 (see Regions of Italy
Regions of Italy

The Region#Political regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state. There are twenty regions autonomous, five of them are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
), where this was done at the region
Region

Region is a geographical term that is used in various ways among the different branches of geography. In general, a region is a medium-scale area of land or water, smaller than the whole areas of interest , and larger than a specific site A region may be seen as a collection of smaller units or as one part of a larger whole ....
al level. Under the terms, however, of Legislative Decree 267/2000 in implementation of amendments to Title V of the Italian Constitution, the frazioni are now defined at the comune level.

Officers

Under the former legislation, a frazione had the option of having a prosindaco (submayor), who was appointed by the mayor (il sindaco) of the comune, often on the recommendation of deliberative bodies such as the communal council (consiglio) or the giunta, or as a result of a petition by enough residents of the frazione involved; although there was no official provision for groups of frazioni joining forces with the appointment of a single prosindaco, the case was frequent enough. Under current law, however, Article 54 of the d.lgs. 267/2000 provides that a mayor may delegate mayoral functions at the frazione level to a councillor of the comune.

In many comuni, in addition to their advisory function, the frazioni are endowed with their own clerks and recorders of deeds, but do not maintain their own civil records.

See also

  • Località
    Località

    A localit?, in Italy, is the name given to inhabited places that are not accorded a more significant distinction in administrative law such as a frazione, comune, municipio, circoscrizione, or quartiere....
  • Circoscrizione
    Circoscrizione

    Circoscrizione can refer to two different administrative units of Italy. One is an electoral district approximating to the English "constituency" but typically the size of a province or region depending on the election....
  • Contrada
    Contrada

    Contrada is a generic name given to various types of Italian city subdivisions, now unofficial. Depending on the case, a contrada will be a localit?, a rione, a quartiere , a borgo, or even a suburb....
  • Rione
    Rione

    Rione is the name given to a ward in several Italian cities, the best-known of which is rioni of Rome. Unlike a quartiere, a rione is usually an official administrative subdivision....
    • Rioni of Rome
      Rioni of Rome

      The word rione comes from the Latin regio ; during the Middle Ages the Latin word became rejones, from which rione. The word has been used since the Middle Ages to name the districts of central Rome, according to the political divisions of that time....
  • Terziere
    Terziere

    A terziere is a subdivision of several towns in Italy. The word derives from wiktionary:terzo, meaning "third"; and is thus used only for towns divided into three neighborhoods....
  • Quartiere
    Quartiere

    A quartiere is a subdivision of certain Italy towns. The word is from quarto, or fourth, and was thus properly used only for towns divided into four neighborhoods; from it is derived the English word "quarter" to mean a neighborhood ....
  • Sestiere
    Sestiere

    A sestiere is a subdivision of certain Italian towns and cities. The word is from sesto, or sixth; and is thus used only for towns divided into six districts....