Ruisbroekstraat 2

1000 BRUSSEL

Brussels-Capital Region

Tel: +32 (0)2/513.76.80

Fax: +32 (0)2/513.76.81

Algemeen.Rijksarchief@arch.be

Karel Velle: Archiviste général du Royaume

Substitute: Michel Van der Eycken, chef de département
or
Claude de Moreau de Gerbehaye, chef de département

Until 1960, the structure of the Belgian State Archives was determined by the legislation from the French period. The law of the 5th of Brumaire V (26th of October 1796) indeed stipulated that the archives of all the institutions and administrations abolished by the French were to be collected at the main locality of a newly created Department. For the “Belgian” territory however, the regulations set up earlier by the law of the 25th of June 1794 were still effective. This law stipulated that all titles of ownership for national possessions had to be traced and any deeds of “feudal” type had to be destroyed, given their “inhuman” nature.

Archives depositories were set up in every Department except for the Department Twee Neten (province of Antwerp). From the year 1800 on, these Departments were placed under the authority of the Secretary General of the Prefecture.

State-paid archivists were first appointed in Brussels and Liège, later in Mons and Ghent. After the independence of Belgium, State Archives were set up at each main location of those provinces that did not yet have any: Bruges, Namur, Arlon, Hasselt and lastly Antwerp (1896).

From 1960 on, ten new archives depositories were set up: four district depositories in 1964 (Huy, Kortrijk, Renaix and Tournai), two auxiliary archives depositories (in 1960 in Saint-Hubert and in 1964 in Beveren), and finally a State Archives depository in Leuven, Eupen, Louvain-la-Neuve and Anderlecht.

By virtue of the Royal Decree of the 17th of December 1851, the State Archives in the Provinces were placed under the direction of the National Archivist of Belgium, making the State Archives of Belgium one of the most centralised services of this kind in the world.

The National Archivist of Belgium resided in Brussels where, already in 1773, a Bureau des Archives (Archives office) was set up by imperial dispatch. Brussels remained the major archives depository after the Austrian withdrawal and the arrival of the French, gaining even in importance under the reign of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

At the end of 1814, Pierre-Jean de l’Ortye was appointed “archivarius” of the Royal archives in Brussels and was commissioned to supervise the conservation and administration of the archives produced by the public institutions. He was succeeded in 1831 by Louis-Prosper Gachard, who had been his deputy since 1826 and who became the first actual National Archivist of Belgium. He officiated from 1831 to his demise in 1885, on Christmas Eve.

The regulations of the French legislation were in effect in Belgium until 1955, when the Archives Act was enacted. Despite the submission of several bills in order to adapt the Archives Act to the current state of affairs, this law of 1955 is still valid today.