Introduction

The National Archives of Hungary, i.e. the central archives of the historic Hungary and Hungarian Republic celebrated the 250^th anniversary of its foundation in 2006. The significance of the jubilee is indicated by several momentous events including the participation of archival directors from 18 European countries and prominent figures of Hungarian political and scientific life in the jubilee conference, rewarding the institution with Hungarian Heritage Award, releasing the photo album presenting the central building, and the publication of a monograph treating with the history of the Archives.

They all construct parts of our past which has to be preserved. Primarily, the National Archives of Hungary focuses on meeting the exigencies of the time by exploiting the improvement of technical means in order to preserve the material put in charge of the Archives under suitable conditions and to make easier the access to documents.

Unfortunately, the present unfavourable terms aggravate the situation. The progress is slow, but significant: the renovation of the central research room has been finished, and remarkable record collections have been digitalized (e.g. royal books, official reports of Cabinet meetings, censuses, maps, collection of medieval documents, party documents), finding aids and source books have been published.

Regarding its functions, the institution intends to be traditionalist and modern at once. We try to keep every element of archival work which is strictly connected with history and historical researches. Our periodicals (the Archival Publications with its eight-decade-long past, or the ArchivNet which introduces archival sources) are regarded as acknowledged factors of scientific life.

Furthermore, we must keep in view the compelling demand on developing our services, the more intense co-operation with administrative organs, partly in connection with preserving electronic records.

Nowadays, archival work has to conform to the needs of the society and the citizens in connection with scientific researches, family history or the accessibility of legal documents. Due to the appearance of the increasing tendency of interest in the related records following the democratic transformation, there was a sudden growth in the number of visitors at the Archives. Annually 2200 Hungarian and foreign researchers visit the National Archives of Hungary on the average, more than 20 000 times. Our departments fulfil more than a thousand written and verbal requests in relation to the archival collections.

Likewise previously, the institution welcomes everybody who is interested in our national past and wants to gather information of individual or common concern.

Prof. Dr. Lajos Gecsényi
Director General

Data
Name:	National Archives of Hungary
Address:	1014 Budapest, 2–4 Bécsi kapu square
Postal address:	1250 Budapest, PO Box 3
Telephone:	(+36-1) 225-2800
Fax:	(+36-1) 225-2817
E-mail:	info@mol.gov.hu