The History of the NAH Central Building’s Construction

Abstract

The first place to keep the documents with national importance was the Archivum Regni founded in 1756 based on the Act XLV of 1723. By its reorganisation the National Archives was founded in 1874, which operated as the source reserve for the science of history. Since the very beginning the archivists claimed, that the institute should work in a separate building that represents the value of the science with its appearance. The study describes how the construction was completed from the idea until the completion of the Palace of the National Archives. The importance of the construction comes from the fact that it had been the first building in Hungary that was planned and built specifically for the needs of an archives. During the preparation period the leading employees of the archives visited several European archives, wrote detailed reports about the experienced technical and organisational solutions. Due to restrictions of length the study concentrates on the introduction of the experiences of the study tours abroad. During the planning the warehousing, researching, fire safety, operational, and aesthetic features were all considered. However, negotiating the finances forced the decision makers to leave out some of the aims, and make compromises. The construction started in 1913, and should have been finished by the middle of 1916, however due to WWI the building was completed in 1918, its internal decorations were only ready by 1929, and it was used for exclusively archival purposes only after 1945. The preparation, construction and the history of the building supplies us with useful experiences when planning state-of-the-art archival buildings.