The Central State Archive of the Republic of Albania was established as a central institution for the collection, storage, processing, and scientific publication of documents of historical value, a center for directing archival work, and the archival network in Albania. The Central State Archive was created by the Council of Ministers no. 21, dated 08.06.1949, near the Institute of Sciences. Until that time, there was no central archival institution in Albania. From 1955, it functioned as the Directory of Archives at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It consisted of the Central Archive of the People’s Republic of Albania (for funds from the period after 1944) and the Central Historical Archive of the People’s Republic of Albania (for funds before November 29, 1944). In 1963, the General Directorate of State Archives was established under the Council of Ministers and the two central archives were merged into the Central State Archive. The General Directorate directs the archival work for the administration of the National Archival Fund and prepares the rules and systematic instructions for all the archives of the Republic of Albania. The Central State Archive preserves documents from the early Middle Ages until today, which reflect the history of the Albanian people, their struggles for freedom, independence, and national culture, and the achievements of the country’s democratization. The oldest documents are the Silver Codex of the 6th century and the Golden Codex of the 9th century. Secular documents date back to the 15th century. From the 19th century to 1912, there was a rich fund, especially during the era of the National Renaissance. The official acts of the Albanian state 1912-1920 are quite truncated. The state administration has more complete documents after 1920 to the present day. In 1992, the Central Archive of the Labor Party of Albania documents were transferred to the Central State Archive. (In the photo: View from the General Directorate of Archives building.)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 112-113.
Photo: © https://tirananews.al/
Graphic processing: AHCF
