A Historical and Archival Guide to Székesfehérvár (Székesfehérvár, 2003)

THE HISTORY OF SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR TOWN ARCHIVES

noon, and till 2 o'clock the institute was open for the town-hall clerks again. Due to the reorganisation of work areas, the chief archivist was released from managing the Office of Registrar, which was in the town-clerk's scope of action; the honorary town-clerk became entrusted with leading the registry office. Following this the archivist had to work full time to do the unsolved matters of the archives and the file department. (Only medical cases requiring legal competence were exceptions.) In order to carry out the work mentioned above he got an assistant, Ignác Fuják. The instructions of Dr Aladár Zavaros included the translocation and fusion of offices. The former place of the archives, the copying and forwarding office were changed. As the chief medical officer's office was moved, they got place next to each other.

77 After the reconstruction of the town-hall building, the archives were placed on the first floor, later they moved to the basement. During the Second World War the documents were not stowed away in security. Some towns sent their archives to other settlements. In Székesfehérvár the majority of the documents were placed in the basement and the cellar of the Miklós Horthy Culture Centre, which was being built at the time. The documents here were not damaged, as opposed to the documents that were left in the town-hall, which "served as beds for the refugee families"

. Apart from archival documents, "the town's movable property with artistic value" were badly damaged; a great part of the paintings and works of art that were the property of the town or were deposited in the town got lost or were destroyed.

78 Even more damage was caused to the town library, which lost nearly half of its books during the frontline battles. The reorganisation of the town administration on 15 February 1949 did not change the position and role of the archives. The archives belonged to the Constitutional and budget department (II). Gábor Kopasz became the director of the archives and he supervised the file department at the same time. (The registry, the copying and forwarding, and delivery offices, the Office of Registrar, etc. also belonged to the department mentioned above.)

79 The archives of the municipalities were abolished with the establishment of the local soviet system in 1950. In accordance with the provisions the county archives and Székesfehérvár town archives were fused and were called State Archives of Székesfehérvár till 1969 when