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

A Győri Püspökség Levéltára (Győr Episcopal Archives)

A GYŐRI PÜSPÖKSÉG LEVÉLTÁRA (GYŐR EPISCOPAL ARCHIVES) 9002 GYŐR, Káptalandomb 1. (Pf. 60.) Tel. 120-87. Archivist: Ferenc BENKOVICH The archives of the Győr bishopric, founded by King Stephen I., preserves records from the seventeenth century only. Between 1594 and 1598 Győr was occupied by the Turks, and the rumours of their aproaching caused the removal of the archives from the episcopal city; the records were partly annihilated, partly mixed up with those of the chapter and never restored to the original place any more. The records from the early seventeenth century were arranged on the order of bishop Ferenc ZICHY (1743-1783) to chests, drawers, bundles and numbers, provided with references and well utilisable indices. In 1809 Győr was besieged by the armies of Napoleon. At this occasion a fire broke out in the episcopal castle and the records were saved by throwing out of the window. Since many records and finding aids were annihilated in the salvage and also the order of the remaining material was mixed up, the old system has never been restored but the records were arranged more or less in chronological order. During the episcopate of János STANKOVICH (1838-1848) the records were arranged to groups according to subjects and in these chronologically. The records prior to 1856 preserve this system up to our day. In 1777 the recently established Szombathely diocese took over the records of the canonical visitations and other important papers of the transferred parishes. The archival material totals 200 running metres. There are 7 charters prior to Mohács. The oldest continuous series is the so-called Capsarium (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries), named after the ancient preservation in sacks; it contains records on the estates which the bishopric was bound to acquire in order to supply the archival material (acta radicalia), lost in the Turkish occupation and the fight for freedom led by Rákóczi. Later also diverse records were added to the series, having no objective connection to the named estate charters (e.g. records of the patrimonial court, private correspondence of several bishops, the accounts of their households, etc.). The series Intimata (1725-1848) contains the decrees on church government,