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

Vas Megyei Levéltár (Vas County Archives)

VAS MEGYEI LEVÉLTÁR (VAS COUNTY ARCHIVES) 9701 SZOMBATHELY, Hefele Menyhért u. 1. (Pf. 78.) Tel. 13-265 Director: Dr. Ferenc HORVÁTH At Kőszeg (9731 KŐSZEG, Jurisich tér 2. Pf. 23) there is a branch of the Archives, the collecting interest of which covers the area of the city. The first mention on the archives of Vas county dates from 1649 when the municipality purchased an estate and constructed a county hall at Szombathely. The final archives were established in this hall in 1779. At the abolition of the ancient county prison in 1890 its building was handed over to the ever growing archives and this is still its seat. In 1945 the edifice was hit by a bomb but the records were not destroyed, only entirely mixed up. In spite of this fact, 95 per cent of them is arranged to-day. The archives of Szombathely borough (oppidum) is a part of the County Archives. Its archival material begins with the early seventeenth century, the older documents were annihilated during the wars. From 1945 its material is located on the first floor of the edifice Petőfi Sándor u. 8. From 1961 the material of the former place of authenticity, the Vasvár collegial chapter is in the custody of the Archives. The chapter worked at Vasvár, the former county seat and preserved its records at the same place up to 1578. In this year the Turkish peril prompted the chapter to settle at Szombathely with the archives, it was here that it functioned as cathedral chapter from 1777, the establishment of the bishopric till the end of the nineteenth century. As a scientific and cultural institution the Archives is subordinated to the Cultural Department of Vas County Council. Its archival material totals 5984 running metres. The records of the municipality are continuous from the sixteenth century (the journals from 1595, the assembly acts from 1643), containing also 749 medieval documents. The municipal archival group is divided into many small series, of which the royal donations (Donationes regiae), the seventeenth century nobilitary charters and the Socage (urbarial) records, the latter especially for economic history, have special value. From this point of view the boundary surveys (Litterae metales), containing medieval records, deserve to be mentioned.