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

Csongrád Megyei Levéltár (Csongrád County Archives)

united" county up to 1944. After the liberation it regained the name Csanád county, wearing it till 15 March 1950 when it was abolished. Similarly to the other archives in the Great Plain, the repository of Csongrád county was almost entirely annihilated under the Turkish rule. Only a few stray records have remained from the period of the Turkish conquest (from 1581). The continous archival material begins with 1722. In the eighteenth century the institution was transferred to Szegvár, in 1884 to Szentes, to the recently constructed new county hall. Since then this is the seat of the Archives. Records produced by the Szeged city council are preserved fragmentarily from 1712, continually from 1717. Owing to the chief activities of the council they are divided into administrative and judicial groups. Among them only the city accountancy department sufferred considerable damage in records owing to the ill understood selection in 1948. The most ancient 50 records of the city derive from the years 1359 to 1526. They are mainly royal charters of donations and privileges. From the time of the Turkish conquest after 1526 almost 100 records are preserved. At the end of the eighteenth century these and the records pertinent to the privileges and estates of the city were separated and collected in the so-called Secret Archives. They were transferred to the public archives in 1861 where they were kept apart as "Secret Archives" till 1950. The Turkish ravages and the iterated fires in the official buildings have almost entirely annihilated the archives of Hódmezővásárhely. Formerly a borough pertaining to Csongrád county, Hódmezővásárhely became a selfstanding municipality in 1873. At the time of the partition the records regarding the city were sought in the county archives and handed over to the city archives. The most ancient archival material represents a correspondence with the landlord in 1691. The continuous series of records of the borough, or the municipality, respectively, the journals of the council and the assembly, of the council and the mayor are preserved from 1848 continually. The oldest records of the archives of Csongrád city derive from 1733, but the continuous series begins with 1850. — The most ancient pieces of Makó come from 1682 (inventories of city estates, royal decrees to the town, matrices etc.). This collection was separated from 1890 and listed as "records handed over for special custody". The continuous series begins with 1784. — The archival material of Szentes is continuous from 1703. There are data on its arrangement in the middle of the nineteenth century.