The Prague City Archives ( cs, Archiv hlavního města Prahy) is one of the departments of the

Prague City Hall Prague City Hall ( Czech: ''Magistrát hlavního města Prahy'') is the municipal and regional office of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. It is formed by the Chief Executive of Prague City Hall and other employees of the City of Prague i ...

. It collects, preserves, processes and makes available archival materials documenting the historical development of

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

since the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

up to the present. Together with the National Archives of the Czech Republic the Prague City Archives is one of the largest and most important

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

in Bohemia.

History

The Prague City Archives was founded as an independent specialized institution in 1851. Since that time it was located on the ground floor of the

Old Town Hall Old or OLD may refer to: Places * Old, Baranya, Hungary * Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, ...

. During the fire of the Old Town Hall on 8 May 1945, a part of the archive was destroyed, but fortunately the majority of the historical documents were evacuated outside Prague. After the end of the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

the archives were housed in the

Clam-Gallas Palace The Clam-Gallas Palace ( cs, Clam-Gallasovský palác) is a Baroque palace in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The building is situated on the corner of Husova Street and Mariánské Square, in Prague Old Town. History The palace wa ...

in the

Old Town of Prague The Old Town of Prague ( cs, Staré Město pražské, german: Prager Altstadt) is a medieval settlement of Prague, Czech Republic. It was separated from the outside by a semi-circular moat and wall, connected to the Vltava river at both of its ...

. The palace was soon unable to accommodate the wealth of material, therefore the archives were housed in eight different buildings, some of them were located outside Prague. The new archive building was built in 1997 in the Prague district of

Chodov Chodov () may refer to places in the Czech Republic: *Chodov (Sokolov District), a town in the Karlovy Vary Region * Chodov (Karlovy Vary District), a municipality and village in the Karlovy Vary Region * Chodov (Domažlice District), a municipalit ...

. The Clam-Gallas Palace serves today as venue for cultural event and conferences organized by the Prague City Archives.

Archival collections

The archive currently administers 19,000 meters in length of archive material and 3,000 meters of books, newspapers and magazines. The collection of

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

s contains 8,427 official books relating to the four medieval Prague towns and several hundred literary, religious and scientific or academic manuscripts. It has a collection of over 200,000

parchments Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...

and paper documents. The archives has also a large library containing over 150,000 oriented chiefly towards the history of Prague and its present-day life. The oldest document kept in the archives is the so-called ''

Bohnice Bohnice () is a district in the north of Prague, located in Prague 8, some 5 km north of city centre. The district is home to a large psychiatric hospital and a large panel housing estate in which all of the streets are named after cities or ...

Authentica'' from 1158.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 1851 establishments in the Austrian Empire Organizations established in 1851 Archives in the Czech Republic City archives Organizations based in Prague History of Prague