Comune

The comune (Italian pronunciation: [koˈmuːne]; plural: comuni [koˈmuːni]) is a basic constituent entity of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality.

"Comunes" redirects here. For the non-profit collective, see Comunes Collective.
Not to be confused with Commune.
Administrative divisions of Italy:
- Regions (black borders)
- Comuni (grey borders)
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Importance and function

The comune provides many of the basic civil functions: registry of births and deaths, registry of deeds, and contracting for local roads and public works.

It is headed by a mayor (sindaco or sindaca) assisted by a legislative body, the consiglio comunale (communal council), and an executive body, the giunta comunale (communal committee). The mayor and members of the consiglio comunale are elected together by resident citizens: the coalition of the elected mayor (who needs an absolute majority in the first or second round of voting) gains three fifths of the consiglio's seats. The giunta comunale is chaired by the mayor, who appoints others members, called assessori, one of whom serves as deputy mayor (vicesindaco). The offices of the comune are housed in a building usually called the municipio, or palazzo comunale.

As of February 2019 there were 7,918 comuni in Italy; they vary considerably in area and population. For example, the comune of Rome, in Lazio, has an area of 1,307.71 km² and a population of 2,761,477 inhabitants, and is both the largest and the most populated; Atrani in the province of Salerno (Campania) was the smallest comune by area, with only 0.12 km², and Morterone (Lombardy) is the smallest by population.

The density of the comuni varies widely by province and region: the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, for example, has 391,224 inhabitants in 10 municipalities, or over 39,000 inhabitants per municipality; whereas the province of Isernia has 85,237 inhabitants in 52 municipalities, or 1,640 inhabitants per municipality – roughly twenty-four times more communal units per inhabitant. There are inefficiencies at both ends of the scale, and there is concern about optimizing the size of the comuni so they may best function in the modern world, but planners are hampered by the historical resonances of the comuni, which often reach back many hundreds of years, or even a full millennium.

While provinces and regions are sanctioned by the constitution of the Republic of Italy, and subject to fairly frequent border changes, the natural cultural unit is indeed the comune, for many Italians, their hometown.

Many comuni also have a municipal police (polizia municipale), which is responsible for public order duties. Traffic control is their main function in addition to controlling commercial establishments to ensure they open and close according to their license.

Subdivisions
Number of municipalities and population in Italy[1]
YearNumberPopulationPop/Comune
18617,72022,171,9462,872
18718,38327,295,5093,256
18818,26028,951,5463,505
19018,26332,963,3163,989
19118,32435,841,5634,306
19219,19539,396,7574,285
19317,31141,043,4895,614
19367,33942,398,4895,777
19517,81047,515,5376,084
19618,03550,623,5696,300
19718,05654,136,5476,720
19818,08656,556,9116,994
19918,10056,885,3367,023
20018,10156,995,7447,036
20118,09259,433,7447,345
20197,91860,483,9737,639
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
9,000
10,000
1861
1871
1881
1901
1911
1921
1931
1941
1951
1961
1971
1981
1991
2001
2011
2018
Number of municipalities (comuni) in Italy at each census from 1861–2016.

Administrative areas inside comuni varies according to their population.

Comuni with at least 250,000 residents are divided into circoscrizioni (circonscriptions, roughly equivalent to French arrondissements or London boroughs) to which the comune delegates administrative functions like schools, social services and waste collection; such functions varies from comune to comune. These bodies are headed by an elected president and a local council.

Smaller comuni usually comprise:

  • A main city, town or village, that almost always gives its name to the comune; such a place is referred to as the capoluogo ("head-place" or "capital"; cf. the French chef-lieu) of the comune; the word comune is also used in casual speech to refer to the city hall.
  • Outlying areas called frazioni (singular: frazione, abbreviated: fraz., literally "fraction"), each usually centred on a small town or village. These frazioni have usually never had any independent historical existence, but occasionally are former smaller comuni consolidated into a larger one. They may also represent settlements which predated the capoluogo: the ancient town of Pollentia (today Pollenzo), for instance, is a frazione of Bra. In recent years the frazioni have become more important thanks to the institution of the consiglio di frazione (fraction council), a local form of government which can interact with the comune to address local needs, requests and claims. Even smaller places are called località ("localities", abbreviated: loc.).
  • Smaller administrative divisions called municipalità, rioni, quartieri, terzieri, sestieri or contrade, which are similar to districts and neighbourhoods.

Sometimes a frazione might be more populated than the capoluogo; and rarely, owing to unusual circumstances (like depopulation), the town hall and its administrative functions can be moved to one of the frazioni: but the comune still retains the name of the capoluogo.

In some cases, a comune might not have a capoluogo but only some frazioni. In these cases, it is a comune sparso ("sparse comune") and the frazione which houses the town hall (municipio) is a sede municipale (compare county seat).

Homonymy

There are not many perfect homonymous Italian municipalities. There are only six cases in 12 comuni:[2]

This is mostly due to the fact the name of the province or region was appended to the name of the municipality in order to avoid the confusion. Remarkably two provincial capitals share the name Reggio: Reggio nell'Emilia, the capital of the province of Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna, and Reggio di Calabria, the capital of the homonymous metropolitan city. Many other towns or villages are likewise partial homonyms (e.g. Anzola dell'Emilia and Anzola d'Ossola, or Bagnara Calabra and Bagnara di Romagna).

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See also
International

References
  1. "Comuni dal 1861". www.comuniverso.it. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  2. (in Italian) Complete list and infos on Comuni-italiani.it
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