COURAGE

connecting collections

The Transylvanian bishopric founded around the turn of the first millennium played a significant role during the Medieval Age. In this respect both the bishopric and the chapter may have possessed a significant amount of archival materials. Similarly, the archival records of other church centres, the other Hungarian archdioceses and episcopates suffered enormous losses over the centuries. Based on parallels it can be assumed with certainty that a large number of original diplomas were collected also in Alba Iulia. Furthermore, on the basis of the authentic local activity it can also be safely presumed that documents pertaining to the operation of the public authorities in the whole of Transylvania as well as other records related to private-law activity and family deposits were stored up. Besides this public notarial activity, also documents linked to the private properties and operation of the chapter were kept here.

For centuries, the chapter archives were located in the ground-floor hall of the south tower of the cathedral in Alba Iulia. According to the situation in 1940 the chapter archives were situated in three different places: in the Batthyaneum, in the chapter-house (audit-room), and under the southern tower. After World War II, the episcopal archives were reorganised by clerical persons who lacked archival knowledge. As a consequence, documents pertaining to the same subject were accessible in separate places and thus the study of files was rendered practically impossible to the uninitiated.       

Following the change of regime in Romania, the idea of rearranging the archives was brought up in the early 1990s by Lajos Cicutti, a retired jurist based in Rome, and the leaders of the Archdiocese of Alba Iulia as well as Hungarian archivists were won over to this cause. In 1997 they initiated the work and a year later the preliminary surveying of the material took place. By the end of October 1998 they drew-up the first detailed arrangement proposal which included suggestions regarding the up-to-date storage of the material. The actual document organisation work was commenced in the spring of 1999 and the Archbishopric Archives of Alba Iulia at that time opened its doors to the general public. At the beginning, the arrangement works proceeded slowly since first they had to properly disinfect the infected part of the stored material. This procedure took place in several stages between December 2000 and April 2001 in the paper restoration laboratory of the Museum in Alba Iulia. The initially basic-level and then predominantly intermediate-level arrangement of the material in Alba Iulia had been completed by the beginning of 2003. Furthermore, in August 2002, the surveying of the archival material of the former Transylvanian Catholic Status was performed in Cluj-Napoca. Also here, the arrangement and survey of the stored records made it necessary to create a proper facility with up-to-date equipment, which had been completed by the summer of the following year.

In 2003 the Chief Diocesan Office launched an archival value-saving programme with the circular written by Archbishop György Jakubinyi. In this regard the stored documents of the parishes existing on the territory of the chief diocese were collected mainly with Hungarian state funding and structured in the district centres of the cathedral deanery. It was at that time that the name of the archives was changed to Archdiocesan Archives of Alba Iulia. So far nine archives have been founded in the following cities: Alba Iulia (2003), Gherla (2005), Sfântu Gheorghe (2005), Târgu Mureș (2005), Gheorgheni (2007), Odorheiu Secuiesc (2008), Gherla (Armenian Catholic 2010), Cluj-Napoca (2011), and Miercurea Ciuc (2016). These archival centres store the systematised, researchable archival files of 80% of the parishes that make up the diocese.

Beside the central Archiepiscopal and Capitular Archives, the Chief Diocesan Archives also include the Archives of the Theological School in Alba Iulia, which are housed in the building of the Seminary, where the records began to be organised in 2004, and the already mentioned Archives of the Transylvanian Catholic Status in Cluj-Napoca, where the arrangement of the archival material was completed by 2005. At the organisation of the diocesan and the status archives, in creating the system of fonds and sub-fonds the archivists had very few examples to guide them. At that time the structuring of Catholic archives in the country was only in few places taken to the level where they could rely on their own experience and repertoires as archival support had not been published anywhere yet. It was an obvious basic principle for them that it would be proper to adapt themselves to the organisation guidelines established in Hungarian Catholic church archives; however, due to the special situation of Transylvania these guidelines could not be fully applied in the course of their work.

So far, on the territory of the Chief Diocese a document file stock measuring 1,800 linear metres has been processed. Out of this, 1,000 linear metres are located in Alba Iulia, consisting of the files of the central offices, while 800 linear metres represent source material of parochial origin, and approximately 300 consist of the archives of church administrative units (archiepiscopate, parish, subsidiary parish). Archival research is facilitated by the five repertoire volumes published so far, which are also accessible in electronic format on the website of the institution.

The Archdiocesan Central Archives in Alba Iulia, the Archiepiscopal and Capitular Archives, which also stores the Áron Márton Memorial Collection, operates in seven renovated and professionally equipped rooms on the ground floor of the metropolitan palace. The premises of 200 m² stores archival material amounting to approximately 1,000 linear metres which is continuously increasing. Here are stored the historical files of the Episcopal Office, the archival fragments of the advisory body of the Transylvanian bishop, i.e., the Chapter, the church school and economic documents, other valuable collections, such as civil status registrars’ duplicates, personal legacies or diplomas. The files have been arranged in seven fonds, as follows: I. Episcopal Archives; II. Chapter Archives; III. Economic Archives; V. Archives of Other Structures; VI. Personal Legacy; VII. Collections.  The fourth fonds not mentioned here (IV. Fonds group) is the Archives of the Transylvanian Catholic Status which is situated in Cluj-Napoca.

The Archdiocesan Archives in Split is the central archive of the Split-Makarska Archdiocese. It is the archives of Archbishop’s chancellery office and the other archdiocesan institutions, as well as the archives of individual archbishops and priests, including the personal collection of Archbishop Franić. It also contains the archives of the old abolished dioceses of Trogir and Makarska, as well as the archives of the Split Cathedral District and the Split cathedral itself. Archdiocesan Archives in Split are<s among the oldest archives in the Croatia, since the Split Church is the heir to the ancient Salonitan Diocese of the Roman era. The oldest archival materials date back to the 9^th century, and among the oldest documents are various documents issued by popes and rulers. The archives that were at that time housed in the Archbishop's Chancellery were consumed by a fire at the beginning of the 16^th century, so that most of the medieval materials were destroyed. Until the new archbishop's palace was built at the end of the 17^th century, the historical materials of the Split archives were threatened by the permanent deterioration of the archbishop's headquarters.

During service of Bishop Stjepan Cosmi in the 1680s, the restoration of the historical materials survived a turbulent period in the history of the archives. New problems followed the devastation in Dalmatia by French troops at the beginning of the 19^th century, who occupied the bishop's palace in Split. They treated the old archives very arbitrarily and indiscriminately. However, the reestablishment of the Austrian authorities Dalmatia became an opportunity to find a solution for the Archdiocesan Archives of Split, so in 1833 the first inventory was compiled. At the end of the 19^th century, the entire archival materials were transferred to the building of the new bishop's palace, where the archives would remain until 1971, when they were relocated to their present address in Zrinsko-frankopanska street no. 14. in Split. According to Kovačić, the archives again suffered damage after the communist authorities nationalized the building of the bishop's palace.  Bishop Franić realized that church registers of baptisms and deaths could be fragmented and . After the bishop intervened with the authorities, the conservation department of Split was engaged and the further seizure and looting of the archives was stopped. These archives, with their rich materials, are among the most important archives in southern Croatia. Its importance to the study of the national heritage was also recognized by the Croatian State Archives, which declared these archival materials a cultural good in 2014.

The archive is a part of the Kaunas State Drama Theatre. The theatre was the first professional drama theatre in Lithuania, established in 1920. It was an important cultural centre in the 'provisional' capital of the Republic of Lithuania between 1918 and 1940. During Soviet times, after the capital of Soviet Lithuania was moved to Vilnius, the Kaunas State Drama Theatre played an important role in attracting students and the intelligentsia. Provocative productions often became subjects of discussion among residents of the city.