Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 39. (1986)
Archive Buildings and the Conservation of Archival Material. An Expert Meeting, held in Vienna, Austria October 30 - November 1, 1985 - USÓN, Cristina: Adaptation of Ancient Buildings as Archives Repositories in Spain
ADAPTATION OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS AS ARCHIVES REPOSITORIES IN SPAIN By Cristina Usón 1. Introduction. - 1.1 Temporary housing (p. 222). - 1.2 Shared buildings (p. 222). - 1.3 Separate buildings (p. 223). - 2. Adaptation of buildings for provincial archives (p. 223). - 2.1 Site (p. 224). - 2.2 Structural design (p. 224). - 2.2.1 Complete removal of internal structures (p. 225). - 2.2.2 Adaptation of the building, keeping interior structure (p. 225). - 2.2.3 Combined solutions (p. 226). - 2.3 Protection in strongrooms (p. 226). - 3. Conclusions (p. 226). 1 Housing archives in buildings constructed for other purposes has been the common practice in the past. In Spain, for example, the archives of greatest international significance are housed in buildings intended for other uses: the fortress of Simancas which was adapted in the 16th century to house the archives of the kingdom of Castile under the Austrian dynasty; and the old building of the Exchange Market in Sevilla in which the Archivo de Indias was created exactly two centuries ago. In both cases important modifications were made to the buildings and a concern for the proper conservation and security of the records is clearly seen. Thus, the first Regulation of Simancas (1585) established policies to prevent fires, such as working only during daylight hours, a ban on using candles, lighting fires or ovens; there was even a rule specifying that the main door of the strongroom be plated with iron or copper. In a similar way the ordinances of the Archives of the Indies (1790), besides similar measures to prevent fires, provided for special cleaning every May and an inspection of the terraced roofing by an architect every autumn to avoid any risk of dampness. During the 19th century, the influence of the French Revolution resulted in a new concept of archives: the historical archive separated from the institution generating the documentation and open to research. In Spain, the main historical archive is the Archivo Historico Nációnál of Madrid, created in 1866, which was moved in 1896 to the Palace of Libraries and Museums; in 1953, it was transferred to a new building of its own, the one it occupies today. On the other hand, the first intermediate European repository, the Archivo General Central de la Administración, created eight years earlier (1858), was housed in a section of the ancient archbishop’s palace of Alcalá de Henares, where it was destroyed by a fire of doubtful origin in 1939. Focusing on the current situation of Spanish State Archives, leaving aside the
