Creation of Monaco National Archives: Departmental offices officially opened and website launched

At 11 am on Monday 16 June, H.S.H. the Sovereign Prince officially opened the Monaco National Archives Department at its new offices in Fontvieille. The opening was also attended by Ms Isabelle Berro-Amadeï, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and acting Minister of State, and leading officials from the Principality.

A sovereign ordinance published in the Journal de Monaco on 16 May created a national institution dedicated to archives of public interest in the Principality. The Central Records Office is now the Government Archives Section, and is fully integrated within the National Archives Department, which falls under the Ministry of State.

This development marks the culmination of four years’ work by the National Archives Preparatory Team.

Prior to the 1911 Constitution, the Sovereign and the State were institutionally intertwined, as were their respective archives. As a result, much of the Government’s documentary heritage dating from before 1911 is held in the Archives of the Prince’s Palace, founded in 1881, and remains part of their collections, as assets of the Crown. The Palace Archives also continue to collect and preserve the archives of the Sovereign, the Royal Family and the Sovereign House.

The National Archives, under the authority of H.E. the Minister of State, hold some of the Principality’s heritage archives. Those which can be shared are available for consultation by the government, Monegasque nationals and residents, as well as amateur and professional genealogists, researchers and historians.

The role of the National Archives Department is to collect, preserve, process, communicate and promote public and private collections, and to contribute to the drafting of legislation pertaining to archives. The Department also offers support to producers of archive materials, particularly in the public sector, to help modernise and standardise archive practices.

The National Archives Department is designed to be a shared space open to all organisations, notably public organisations, who would like to deposit their heritage archives there to ensure that they are properly preserved and promoted. The Department now has an additional 500 m² of fully renovated office space in Fontvieille. In recent months, several agreements to deposit heritage archives have been signed between the National Archives and public entities that are not part of the Prince’s Government. More are set to follow this summer.

 addition to the two reading rooms at the Fontvieille and Ministry of State offices, which can be accessed by appointment during the week, as part of the official opening on Monday 16 June, the National Archives Department launched its website, aimed at all audiences (https://archives-nationales.gouv.mc/). This is a national portal for the publication of standardised inventories, digital archives, virtual exhibitions and a range of editorial content. It is open to other organisations in addition to the National Archives as part of an effort to promote Principality’s archives of public interest online. For example, the inventories for the public archives of the Commune, as well as private archive collections held by the Monaco Multimedia Library Heritage Collection are published on this portal.