Archiwum Państwowe w Przemyślu

The origin of the municipal archive in Przemyśl goes back to the Middle Ages and is connected with location of the town according to Magdeburg law, as well as with the fact that first municipal authority organs: the town council and the court of assessors were brought into being then. The term – archivum civile (municipal archive) – is first mentioned in an old document from 1635. The records coming from the Middle Ages say about eventful history of the town and indicate people of many nationalities and religious denominations living there. In the Kingdom of Poland and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Przemyśl was an important state and church administration centre. Since the moment of its definitive incorporation into Polish state in 80s of 14th century Przemyśl was the capital of Przemyśl Land (Ziemia Przemyska) in the Ruthenian Voivodship. In 15th century the court of the first instance, the land court, as well as the chamberlain’s court were established here. Catholic and Orthodox bishops had their seats in the town and after the Union of Brest the Orthodox bishop was replaced by the Grek-Catholic one. Both the hierarchs and the cloisters existing in the town had their own archives other than the municipal ones. The period of two world wars did not result in any heavy damages of Old Polish documents. During the World War I the Przemyśl Archive has even got some acquisitions as the Committee of War Archive in Przemyśl subordinated to the Polish War Archive in Vienna was established in July 1916. This institution led by Tadeusz Troskolański gained printed matters, books, diaries and the press in Polish, Ukrainian and German informing about Polish question during World War I and the history of the besieged town-fortress Przemyśl. Unfortunately, the index of the war archive prepared by the archivist Maria Polaczkówna has not been preserved by now. The next trial of setting in order the Old Polish records has been undertaken in the times of II Polish Republic. The archivist Jan Smołka rearranged the municipal documents which resulted in the “Catalogue of the Archive of Old Records of Przemyśl” issued in 1927. During the War World II the Old Polish documents were taken out from the town twice; in 1940 they were brought to Lwów by the Soviet occupation authorities and came back to Przemyśl in 1943. The documents were evacuated again in 1944 by retreated German authorities to Tyniec near Cracow. They were regained only in 1947. During the War World II documents from the 19th century concerning the history of the town were stored in the municipal archive. In 1950 the municipal archive passed under the state protection. According to the Enactment of the Minister of Education from November 10th 1950 The Voivodship State Archive in Rzeszów was established. The Archive of Przemyśl in June 1951 was included into the state archival net and subordinated to the Voivodship State Archive in Rzeszów. Since then it was known as Voivodshipl State Archive in Rzeszów Branch in Przemyśl. One after the other the archives in Jasło (1952), Tarnobrzeg (1953), Sanok (1954), Przeworsk (1961) were established. In 1970 the seat of the Voivodship State Archive was moved to Rzeszów; in Przemyśl remained the County Branch of it. In 1976 according to the reform of state administration the Voivodship State Archive in Przemyśl was established. In 1997 the co-operation agreement with the Central State Historical Archive in Lviv was signed; it allows to exchange scientific experiences and cooperate regarding the common publication allowing to reach easily the needed source of information. The information about scientific, publishing and popularising activity of Przemyśl Archive is printed in annual report issued in the"Rocznik Archiwaln" periodical.. 

The Archive gathers records from 1291-1999. Its resources consist of over 1 500 units containing 3.058 running metres of files divided into 310.195 single items.