Halikko

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**Halikon kunta**

municipality in Finland

Province	Western Finland
Region	Finland Proper
Sub-region	Salo
City manager	Simo Paassilta
Official languages	Finnish
Area - total - land	ranked 260th 357.31 km² 356.79 km²
Population - total (2003) - change - density	ranked 112th 9,374 + 1.4 % 26.3/km²
Urbanisation	68.4 %
Unemployment rate	8.7 %
http://www.halikko.fi/

Halikko (IPA: [ˈhɑlikːo]) is a municipality of Finland.

It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Finland Proper region. The municipality has a population of 9,491 (2004-12-31) and covers an area of 357.31 km² (excluding sea) of which 0.52 km² is inland water. The population density is 26.60 inhabitants per km².

The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

[edit] History

Halikko (was called Rikala) was already in the Iron age important trade and meeting place in Finnish coast. E.g. the Vikings sailed to the coast back then to trade. There are several Iron age treasures found in Halikko.

The name Halikko is mensioned for the first time in 1313.

Manors came to Halikko at the 12th century. First the Aminne Manor, then Vuorentaka and Wiurila. In the middle of 17th century church and state wanted to separate from each other in Finland and in the 1865 the minicipality of Halikko is formed. August Armfelt, the Graf of Wiurila was the first City manager.

In 1932 Halikko had to give areas to Salo and in the 1967 the municipality of Angelniemi was merged to Halikko.