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 231 fifties, the ground floor of the building was used as a printing office, the former cells of the monks became flats. This adaption caused a lot of damage to the historical building. Fortunately the printing office was rehoused in the middle of the 1970s, and so it became possible to use the historical building for other, better purposes. In the case of this building the protection of monuments had to be compromised: the former yard of the monastery has been covered with a roof, in order to get enough space for repositories. The former refectory is used now as a search-room and in other bigger areas of the ground floor we can find now the reference library, several working-rooms, the guest-room and a flat for the guardian. The monks’ cells upstairs are used as store-rooms and preparation rooms. In the building we can find several workshops and a microfilm storeroom. To date, 1500 running metres of material have been placed there, but the reconstruction of the building is not yet finished and the final capacity will be about 3500 running metres. The final costs of the reconstruction, are estimated to be about 10,000.000 Forint. In Szombathely, a town in western Hungary near to the borders of Austria, the Vas County Archives, as already mentioned, were placed in the former county prison building, which is not big enough for this purpose. Now there is no more space for new materials. The necessity of seeking more space, led here again to the adaption of a former franciscan monastery building. After a lot of discussions, we are now in the preparation phase, the architectural projects are ready, the work of reconstruction has begun. The monastery building in the centre of the town dates from the 18th century, but was enlarged with a new floor and other parts in the 20th century. One of the newer wings of the building, which was used originally as an auditorium, is now being adapted as an archives repository. It was possible here to get the necessary room height, and all regulations could be kept, such as fire protection, ventilation, heating etc. This repository will be equipped with rolling shelves, and by this method about 3000 running metres of material can be stored on the 724 m2 platform which means a maximum exploitation of the space. The original entrance to the monastery in the historical part of the building will be the entrance to the archives. On the ground floor you will find the rooms for the customers and researchers: the big research room and auditorium is planned to be located in the former refectory. The rooms serving the internal purposes of the archives will be placed on the first floor, and several rooms for the preparation of materials will be on the ground floor. The yard of the present building is open on the east side, there the construction of a new wing is planned, to obtain more repository space. Because of a lot of uncertain factors, it is not possible now to give a final total of the costs, and of the repository capacity that can be obtained by the
