The Friends Association ICARUS4all invites its members to a field trip to the

Budapest City Archives

Budapest Főváros Levéltára

Short info about the archive

The new building with the prominent front side made of glass blocks dates from 2004. Until then, the Budapest City Archives were spread over seven locations. New building and digitalisation attract more and more people to do on-site-research or to use the database. The holdings of the second largest archive of Hungary comprise approximately 35 kilometres of shelving and are hosted in a storage facility with an area of almost 18.000 m². The documents which date by the middle of the 19th century are written in Latin or German. Only 12 documents from the Middle Ages could be preserved, cause the majority was destroyed due to the Ottoman occupation. These are mainly letters of privilege from the butcher guild. The oldest dates from 1300, and they are kept in the “Páncél” (engl. tank). Furthermore, the letters of privilege for the two free royal capital cities Buda and Pest from 1703 are particularly interesting.

Further information (EN; also available in German) about the history of the Budapest City Archives > here.

Infos about the field trip

Participants obtain a fascinating insight into the different areas of the archive, will find out more about its characteristics, and, by visiting the workshops (e.g. bookbinding, book press), get an impression of the various procedures. The guided tour will be lead by István Kenyeres, the director of the archive. The following round for questions provides time and space for the participants to ask question about the archive, or for example, the Hungarian archival landscape.

New: This year, ICARUS4all offers its members as a separate programme point the possibility to do some guided on-site research on one’s own, or to ask staff members questions about the use of the archive.

Round trip must to be organised by the participants themselves.

The event language is German (with the possibility to switch to English) and jointly organised by the Budapest City Archives and ICARUS4all within the EU-funded project community as opportunity (co:op).

We kindly ask for your binding registration until 7th June!

Programme flow

• 12.15 – 12.45: “Come together”
• 12.45 – 14.45: Guided tour through the archive by director István Kenyeres
• 14.45 – 15.15: Time for questions about the archive/archival landscape, et cetera
• 15.15 – 15.45: Coffee break
• 15.45 – 16.45: Session1 (own on-site research) & Session2 (time for questions about the use of the archive) (simultaneously)
• 16.45: Joint dinner at a nearby restaurant (optional)