National Archives of Hungary

To go and visit the National Archives of Hungary (Magyar Országos Levéltár in Hungarian) which is situated in a building in Budapest sounds rather dull but in fact the building is beautiful as can be seen here with this stunningly detailed ceiling and unique curved arches.

The Archives' remarkable collections include medieval charters (the oldest charter dates back to 1109, and the collection consists of almost 100,000 records), plans and maps (approximately 50,000 pieces of records), archives of central government offices of (early) modern times, and archives of prominent Hungarian families (Eszterházy, Széchenyi, Festetics, Bethlen, Nádasdy). Documents of post-1867 ministries and other government organs may arouse the interest of those who are keen on the near past. Nowadays, the Archives stores 73 kilometres of records and 64 million images of microfilms. The National Archives does not only preserve the historic sources, but it provides the processing and the accessibility of records for scientific researchers and the great public as well.