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

(Central Archives) - Magyar Országos Levéltár (Hungarian National Archives)

archives of Hungary in the same way as the earlier royal archives which had been destroyed. The records of the country were henceforth preserved for almost two centuries and a half, by the highest lay dignitaries, the Counts Palatine from 1526 to 1756. They may also be called the archivists of the country. The Counts Palatine did not keep numerous records; they could be stored in a chest, the chest of the country, which was to be handed over to the new Count Palatine by the heir of the deceased one according to law. In 1723 the Hungarian diet decided that the country should have an archives. This decision was realized in 1756 when, as a result of the labours of the Count Palatine Count Lajos BATTHYÁNY the archives of the country, the national archives (archivum regni, archivum regnicolare) was established in Pozsony (Bratislava). It was subject to the authority of the Count Palatine, and its functionaries were paid by the national treasury. According to the historical development of the country, one may distinguish three periods in the history of the national archives, established in 1756 and working ever since uninterruptedly: the feudal, the bourgeois and the socialist one. In all three periods one may discern two phases in each. The feudal period was the era of the "ancient" national archives. (The adjective "ancient" was added later, in the bourgeois period of its history.) This era lasted from 1756 to 1874, from its establishment to its reorganization. The period is divided into two phases by the year of its transfer from Pozsony to Buda, i.e. 1785. The "ancient" archives of the country settled in Buda together with the national administration, the Locotenential Council and the Chamber; there it was located in the House of the Country, in today's Országház Street in the castle district. It was but a small archives, consisting mainly of the records of the Diet, the Count Palatine and the Chief Justice. Apart from the change of residence and premises, the year 1785 did not involve any important change in the history of the archives; it worked till 1874 in an essentially identical framework and with the old methods. It was an institution of strongly corporate character, a small staff preserved and registered its meagre material, its records were seldom used for scientific research. From 1874, in the bourgeois period of its history, the situation of the archives was altered radically. In that year it was thoroughly reorganized, or, as we may say, organized anew, but not replaced by a new archival institution, as had been suggested on more than one occasion since 1848. After the 1867 compromise between Austria and Hungary the records of