Socken
Socken
Part of a county in Sweden
Socken (Swedish: [ˈsʊ̌kːɛn] or [ˈsɔ̌kːɛn])[1] is the name used for a part of a county in Sweden. In Denmark similar areas are known as sogn, in Norway sokn or sogn and in Finland pitäjä (socken). A socken is a country-side area that was formed around a church, typically in the Middle Ages. A socken originally served as a parish. Later it also served as a civil parish or an administrative parish, and became a predecessor to today's municipalities of Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Today it is a traditional area with frozen borders, in Sweden typically identical to those of the early 20th century country-side parishes. The socken also served as a registration unit for buildings, in Sweden recently replaced by identical districts as registration unit. A socken consists of several villages and industry localities (company towns), and is typically named after the main village and the original church.
The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (January 2019) |