Public Record Office of District Pribram

Public record office is an expert facility of the District Office Pribram. It is a part of a network of state archives and its activity is defined by an archive act no. 97/74 in terms of a novel no. 343/92. Originally the municipal archive has transformed in accordance with the government instruction into the district archive Pribram. In 1960 the districts Pribram, Dobris and Sedlcany fused and the Pribram district expanded for a part of districts Blatna and Horovice. The Pribram archive has taken over under its protection the former district archives in Dobris and Sedlcany - Cerveny Hradek. Since 1/9/1992 the official title has been The Public record office Pribram.
The archive takes care of approximately 2,600 metres of records; the oldest of them come from the 14th century and the youngest ones from the nineties of the 20th century. The oldest document is the privilege of Charles IV. for Krasna Hora nad Vltavou from 1351. At present the archive has taken over for the permanent safe-keeping the written documents arisen from activities of offices of the administration, self-government, judicial bodies, church administration, schools, gilds, cooperations, enterprises, social organizations and private persons operating in Pribram district. This obligation for state and self-government institutions is defined by a law, other authors deposit their written documents on the base of agreements. By depositing in the archive the author acquits of duty to care of the records properly without losing other rights to the records. This state service is free of charge.
The state district archive is an important element of the state legal system, because it saves such written documents, which may be considered as the sources of law, e.g. in case of the property problems. This fact has been used for many times e.g. during restitution and rehabilitation after 1989. However, the basic aim of the archive is to save the written documents of a historical value and to open up them to the explorers' public. Every year many experts from scientific institutions, students, local history explorers and the wide public attend the archive and use materials for their study not only from the archive funds, but also from the large reference library, which contains 8,500 volumes from history, auxilliary sciences of history, art history, editions of sources, encyclopaedic and language dictionaries and many volumes of regional literature including own periodical miscellany Podbrdsko.
Since its foundation, the Pribram archive was in the rooms of the former health insurance office in Pribram, in the vicarage in Dobris and in the castle of Cerveny Hradek near Sedlcany. After the restitution of the castle of Cerveny Hradek by Jan Mladota from Solopisky in 1992, the Sedlcany part of the archive was several times moved (to Necin, Narysov, Kamyk nad Vltavou). That was not good either for the records or the explorers. Thanks to the generosity of the District Office Pribram, which has applied goodly amounts from its budget, in 1994 a construction of a new specialized building started, and finished in 1996. At present the archive has been using a modern building, which meets strict criteria for safe deposit of records and its use for scientific, official and private purposes and at the same time it offers the quality conditions for the responsible work of archivists in the field of the protection of the committed values and for their professional growth.

Back to main page