Dr. Péter Balázs: Guide to the archives of Hungary (Budapest, 1976)

Tolna Megyei Levéltár (Tolna County Archives)

TOLNA MEGYEI LEVÉLTÁR (TOLNA COUNTY ARCHIVES) 7101 SZEKSZÁRD, Béla tér 1. (Pf. 33.) Tel. 12-806 Director: János K. BALOG During the one and a half centuries of Turkish rule Tolna county was depopulated. The resettlement of the county and the reorganization of its administration was begun at the end of the seventeenth century. In lack of a standing county seat, its archives were removed to the seat of the county assemblies continually. In 1727 a county hall was built at Simontornya, housing also the archives. Half a century later, in 1782 it was settled to Szekszárd, the new county seat. In 1794 a huge fire devastated Szekszárd, also the county hall. The records were saved by throwing them through the windows; the order of the archives was dissolved. The records, being placed to sacks, found a temporary home at Tolna, then again at Szekszárd in a wet prison cell. The building of the new county hall was finished in 1836. It was only in this year that the archives found an adequate place and so the protection of the records was secured for a long time to come. From the early nineteenth century the archival material grew rapidly, therefore new stack-rooms were allotted to it several times, but the repository was allocated in the 1970s only in a way worthy of its vocation. By this time the earlier staff of 5 to 6 increased to 17. The destiny of the records was full of vicissitudes just as the allocation of the archives was full of changes. Our repository has records on local history from the expulsion of the Turks, the reorganization of county administration only. At the final settlement (1836) the archival material consisted of four volumes of journals and a few sacks of seventeenth-eighteenth century records only. As record management became more systematical and the care expended on the records grew, also the material increased in a satisfactory manner. Continuous arrangement was begun in 1814, as János LENGYEL was named "administrator" (temporary chief) of the county. At his order the records between 1692 and 1769 were registered in 12 groups. Since that time the arrangement of the records went on for one century and a half with varying intensity. World War II brought considerable damage to the repository: not only were 5 to 10 per cent, of the records lost or annihilated, but the ravages of