Κεντρική Υπηρεσία των Γενικών Αρχείων του Κράτους

The “Administration”, the “Chief Secretariat” of the Greek State, the “Ministries” (later called “Secretariats”) are founded for the implementation of legislative, executive and judicial operation. 1829 The “Archives of the Greek State” is founded with the purpose to collect public flies of the “Ministries” and house archives of the “Secretariats”. 1833 The “Archives of the Greek State” is dissolved and each “Secretariat” retrieves the files it deposited. 1836 The archives of the Court of Auditors are organised and public files are gathered and stored there. 1846 The archives of the National Assemblies are gathered at the Greek Parliament. 1855 The publication of the National Regeneration Archives is announced. 1864 Following the union of the Ionian Islands (Eptanissos) with Greece, the “Archive” in operation of Corfu, Paxos, Lefkada, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zacynthos and Kythira are all subject to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 1914 Law 380/1914 is passed regarding “The Establishment of the Greek State Archiving Service” under the governance of Eleftherios Venizelos, thanks to the efforts of Professor Spyridon Lambrou and the historian-researcher Yiannis Vlachogiannis with the purpose of “collecting and monitoring documents included in all public archives dating 50 years back”. The first Director of the General State Archives was Yiannis Vlachogiannis who donated his valuable collection to the General State Archives and the first Chairman of the Advisory Council was Nikolaos G. Politis. The Ionian Island, Crete and Samos Archives in operation fall under this Service. 1939 Law 2027/1939 is passed regarding the “Reorganization of the General State Archives”. 1991 Law 1946/1991 determines a new legislative frame which regulates the operation of the General State Archives to this day. The Central Service is structured into departments and Archives are established in prefectures which did not exist till then. 2005 The Public Special Service of Greek Government’s Prime Minister, Ministers and General Secretary Archives (founded by the Law2846/2000) was incorporated into the Central Service of the General State Archives of Greece.  

The reproduction of entire series, archives and/or collections of original material requires prior approval by the GSA Advisory Council. The cost of every form of reproduction is duly determined and is reduced by 50% for students who present a valid student ID. 

Mainly public archives, such as ministerial, administrative, juridical, educational, police archives, Correspondence Files, Photograph Collections, Maps and Plans Collections, Newspapers and Periodicals Collections, Postcards Collection, Books Collection. The archival holdings cover the period from the 17th century until now.  

Access to the archives held in the GSA is permitted according to the provisions of Act 1946/1991. In cases of study of archival material which contains sensitive personal data, researchers are required to sign a Personal Data Protection Declaration. Each researcher, upon completing the relevant application form is entitled to study up to five (5) folders per day. This archival material is provided between 09.00 am to 13.00 pm.