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

Veszprém Megyei Levéltár (Veszprém County Archives)

VESZPRÉM MEGYEI LEVÉLTÁR (VESZPRÉM COUNTY ARCHIVES) 8201 VESZPRÉM, Lenin tér 5. (Pf. 71-72.) Tel. 12-736 Director: Lajos MADARÁSZ In the lack of sources we do not know the early history of the county archives. The medieval records were almost entirely annihilated during the Turkish occupation. Charters and records relating the medieval county are to be found in the Hungarian National Archives, the Veszprém Episcopal Archives and the Pannonhalma Archives of the Benedictine Order. According to our seventeenth century sources the county assemblies and county courts were celebrated at Pápa; presumably the archives was kept in this place too. As the state organization became stronger after the expulsion of the Turks, the nobilitary county was ever more attached to Veszprém, the episcopal seat. In 1767 the first county hall was built at Veszprém, housing the archives as well. The county assembly journals mention the archives from the 1720s on. It was the duty of the county notaries to preserve the journal and the officials of the county were bound to hand in the records. Arrangement has been begun as well. The enlightened absolutism of Joseph II (1780-1790) not only turned the country upside down, but it regulated also the archives. It introduced a modern management of records and it ordered the formation of record series provided with finding aids, but it hindered the work more than helped it by continual urging, so that during the ordered removal the records were mixed up entirely. As the king died, the nobilitary reaction prevailed and the conscriptions established by him were burned. In the nineteenth century the archives were developing favourably. Its arrangement and listing were directed by a separate deputation. From 1820 the county had a self-standing archivist. The material increased in the meantime and it was selected several times - alas, without sufficient technical knowledge. The "dical" tax assessments, the "pagal" books were sorted out, together with many ancient records, deemed worthless, which have been arranged before by the generations of archivists. World War II wrought havoc in the material. Apart from the records of the feudal age scarcely anything was left, most of the furniture of the archives has been annihilated as well.