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

Vas Megyei Levéltár (Vas County Archives)

For historical statistics the village assessments beginning with the seventeenth century are especially valuable. Among the judicial records selection has caused great losses to the criminal procedures. The archival material of the municipality is complete, though strongly selected up to 1912. A special source value is attached to the records of the 1919 Republic of Councils and those of various government commissaries from the early 1920s. Among the archival groups a large part is made up of the village archives, which are rather defective for the feudal period, selected and arranged for the bourgeois one. Of the archives of the former boroughs (oppida) Szombathely town (continuous journals from 1609), Sárvár and Körmend boroughs are well represented. Besides the records of the municipality of the county those of all specialized organs of the bourgeois period (1849-1945) are in archival custody: financial, agricultural, industrial, commercial and educational organs. In the financial archival group of the Cadastral Survey Inspectorate one finds the ancient technical surveys of all villages of the county, significant mainly for the history of settlement. The material of the county court up to 1920 is also in archival custody, illustrating the history of the workers' movement, while the records of the Court of Registration are important for industrial history. The archives of the schools of the county seat and the district seats are kept from their foundation; a special value may be attributed to the Jesuitfounded Kőszeg public school (from 1689) and the Szombathely secondary school (from 1793). The papers of 47 guilds are extant from the beginning of the seventeenth century; among those of the economic enterprises the material of the Szentgotthárd Scythe Fabric (from the nineteenth century), the Szombathely MÁV (State Railways) Workshop and the Szombathely Leather Works is significant. Of the ecclesiastical archives that of the Vasvár-Szombathely cathedral chapter is an outstanding one. There are many medieval records among those of this place of authenticity, their registering is still a task to be accomplished in the future. Its journals are continuous from 1543, containing valuable data for the history of possessions and the economy of the neighbouring counties, also for the East Austrian (Burgenland) and North-Slovenian (Prekmurje) areas. Their medieval material makes the series Litterae ecclesiasticae et familiares and Metales valuable.