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

Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén Megyei Levéltár (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Archives)

county municipalities, the counties Borsod and Zemplén and that of a municipal city, Miskolc. Their drawing to a unitary organization is linked with the unification of three counties, Borsod, Abauj-Torna and Zemplén in 1949. As the organisation of regional state archives was established in 1950, also the archives of the originally self-standing municipalities have been united in the Miskolc State Archives. It was then that the archival material of Abauj-Torna county, active between 1920 and 1938, or respectively between 1945 and 1949, was attached to ours. The Sátoraljaújhely repository, between 1950 and 1959 a part of the Miskolc State Archives, became a self-standing institution as Ferenc Kazinczy State Archives in 1959. As in 1968 the regional archives came under the maintenance and supervision of the councils, the Sátoraljaújhely repository has been reunited with the county archives again as its department. Let us summarize the history of the three major archival bodies before 1950 in brief. The nobilitary assemblies of Borsod county were celebrated at Miskolc up to 1579, at varying places from Szendrő to Ónod in the time of Turkish occupation, alternately at Szendrő and Ónod from 1659. In 1727 a singlestory building was erected at Miskolc, in the court of the present council seat, where also the archives found a lasting place. This edifice was felt already narrow by 1770, owing also to the needs of the archives. Finally between 1809 and 1836, with the same justification, a still standing edifice was erected in classicistic style, housing the archives for a long time. The archives of Borsod county was entrusted to the notary, aided from 1717 by a scribe, who was responsible for keeping the records in order. About 1770 the archives were arranged with great care, its management and the key was entrusted to the chief notary. The personnel remained the same essentially up to 1950: it consisted of a chief archivist and an office attendant. The archives of Zemplén county was preserved originally in Csicsva castle, but the earliest records were annihilated by a fire in 1527. Those issued later underwent many vicissitudes, finally they found a place at Sátoraljaújhely, on the first floor of the court aisle of the county hall built in 1768. The archives were stored in two rooms, in baroque wardrobes or shelves, respectively, in the taste of the age. In 1844 three other rooms were added, and furnished in the style of classicism. By the early twentieth century even these premises became insufficient, so the additional records were placed in a stack-room on the ground floor.