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 - HARRACH, Erzsébet: Hungarian Experiences in the Adaptation of Ancient Buildings
HUNGARIAN EXPERIENCES IN THE ADAPTATION OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS By Erzsébet Harrach Since the Second World War very few independent, new archive buildings have been built in Hungary. I can mention only the new building of the county archive of Szolnok, and another one in Szeged, built as a part of a new library building. A great part of our archives are still placed in buildings once built for other purposes, for instance former county prisons (Eger, Szombathely) or in the buildings of town halls, county-government buildings (Sopron, Kaposvár, Zalaegerszeg, Budapest, Debrecen, etc.). One thing is common with all of them, today none of them has enough space. As a solution to this problem our archives were often relocated in ancient buildings which were protected as historical monuments. In most cases our archivists seemed to be very unhappy with this solution. The fact is, that this solution needs very careful planning, because according to the „Venetian Charta“ of ICOMOS, in the case of buildings protected as historical monuments not only the facade, but the whole architectural structure has to be protected. However, some examples will prove, that it is possible to get a good solution to this problem. The problem of how to use historical buildings today, is not solely an Hungarian one. In experience this problem occurs very often with old castles and monasteries. In order to save such buildings and to give them a new purpose the Hungarian authorities tried in some cases to adapt such buildings for use as archives. Thus the Somogy County Archives, for instance, was recently placed in the Castle of Kereki, in western Hungary, while the Fejér county archives has been situated since the end of the 1970s in a former nunnery and school building of the 17th century, in the town of Székesfehérvár. I would like to tell you more details about some other examples in Hungary, which are now in progress. In Vác, a town about 40 kilometers north of Budapest, a branch of the Pest County Archives will be placed in a former franciscan monastery building. In conformity with the traditions of the orders of mendicant monks, the monastery was built in the middle ages outside the city walls. Like most of our medieval buildings, it was destroyed under the Turkish occupation, and rebuilt in the 17h and 18th century, so the facade of the building is baroque. After the dissolution of the religious communities in Hungary in the early
