Halikko

**Halikon kunta**
	Former 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/

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Halikko (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈhɑlikːo]) is a former municipality of Finland that existed until December 31, 2008. On January 1 2009 the municipality was merged with the larger neighboring Salo. Before the merge Halikko had become a rapidly urbanizing rural area.^[1]

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

The municipality was unilingually Finnish.

[edit] History

Halikko (was called Rikala) was already in the Iron age an important trade and meeting place on the 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 mentioned for the first time in 1313.

Manors came to Halikko at the 12th century. First the Åminne 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 with Halikko.

On January 1, 2009 Halikko ceased to exist as it was attached to the City of Salo. The territory of the former Halikko thus changed status from rural to urban.