 | This articlerelies largely or entirely on asingle source. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page. Please helpimprove this article byintroducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "Frazione" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2024) |
Afrazione (pl.:frazioni, cognate with Englishfraction) is a type of subdivision of acomune ('municipality') in Italy, often a small village or hamlet outside the main town, similar to asuburb orexurb. Mostfrazioni were created during theFascist era (1922–1943) as a way to consolidate territorial subdivisions in the country.
In the autonomous region of theAosta Valley, afrazione is officially calledhameau in French. InSouth Tyrol, afrazione is calledFraktion in German andfrazion inLadin.
The termfrazioni refers to the villages or hamlets that often make up acomune in rural Italian areas.[1] Subdivision of acomune is optional; somecomuni have nofrazioni, but others have several dozen. Thecomune usually has the same name of thecapoluogo, but not always, in which case it is called acomune sparso.
In practice, mostfrazioni are smallvillages orhamlets, occasionally just a clump of houses. Not every hamlet is classified as afrazione; those that are not are often referred to aslocalità, for example, in the telephone book. In some cases,frazioni are more populous than thecapoluogo of thecomune. Due to unusual circumstances or to the depopulation of thecapoluogo, the town hall and its administrative functions can move to one of thefrazioni: thecomune still retains the name of thecapoluogo.
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(December 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Historically, manyfrazioni came into being during the Fascist era, when a major effort was made to consolidate and rationalize the territorial subdivisions of the country. Sometimes, afrazione represents a formercomune that was believed to be no longer viable.
Until 2000, the central government established thefrazioni and defined their borders, except in the case of the fiveautonomous regions (seeregions of Italy), where this was controlled at the regional level. By the Legislative Decree 267/2000 to implement amendments to Title V of the Italian Constitution, the individualcomuni now define thefrazioni within their borders.
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(December 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Under the former legislation, afrazione had the option of having a submayor (prosindaco), who was appointed by themayor (sindaco) of thecomune, often on the recommendation of deliberative bodies such as the communal council (consiglio) or thegiunta, or as a result of a petition by enough residents of thefrazione involved; although there was no official provision forfrazioni to group together with the appointment of a singleprosindaco, this did happen quite often. Under current law, however, Article 54 of the d.lgs. 267/2000 provides that a mayor may delegate mayoral functions at thefrazione level to a councillor of thecomune.
In manycomuni, in addition to their advisory function, thefrazioni have their clerks and recorders of deeds, but they do not maintain their own civil records.
