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
232 Archive Buildings adaptation of this monastery building; but one thing is certain, the problems of the county archives in Szombathely will be solved for a long time, when this project is finished. In Veszprém, another town in western Hungary, not far from the lake Balaton, the county archives are placed in two historical buildings. In one part of the former 18th century piarist monastery a repository for 2600 running metres of documents, are placed on 869 m2, and further sections of the building are adapted for photographic and restoration-workshops and the administration offices of the county archives. In another historical building in a house dating also from the 18th century a repository for 1500 running metres of documents, has been recently installed on 405 m2. Last but not least let me give you some information about our problems and their solutions at the city archives of Budapest where I work. Like a lot of other city archives, that of Budapest was placed in one wing of the town-hall building. During the Second World War a great part of the documents were delivered into the crypt of St Steven’s Basilica, and so were saved. Unfortunately, the documents left in the town-hall building were almost all damaged. I think it does not need any proof, that the crypt of a church is the wrong place for storage of documents. The situation was so bad, that in 1972 the leaders of the city decided on building new archives. Facilities for the storage of 30.000 metres of material, and a crew of 120 persons were needed. Instead of telling you why this project could not be realized, I would like to inform you, how we found a partial solution for our problem — probably enough for some years - by adapting a quite special type of building for our purposes. In the early forties the Franciscans began to build in Budapest the so called “Hungarian Holy Earth” which was planned to be an oval form of church surrounded by chapels representing the holy places. The oval main church was never finished, only some of the chapels and a part of the church towers were completed. This half finished building was given by the city authorities to be adapted as an archive mainly for the collection of architectural plans, drawings and maps, belonging to the city archives. The office rooms, conservation workshops, and the research room are placed in the former chapels, and are now connected by a newly built circular gallery which is also used for the storage of plans and maps in incombustible metal cases. The towers and all the other parts of the building are used as the repository. Since 1982, 4000 running metres of documents and books, the whole collection of plans and maps, and the film-library have been placed here. After the adaption, the building is now suitable for our purposes. Most of the repository rooms have no windows, but do have an artificial ventilation system. Two lifts can be used for delivery. By adding further new buildings, it would be possible to complete the whole new city archive building project; on this site, some architectural designs for it already exist, but that does not belong to today’s discussion “how to adapt ancient buildings as archive repositories”.
