The Romanian Archives and Their Documentary Libraries

Romania, the only nation founded by a Latin people of Greek religion, has an ancient and very interesting history as well as a unique archival experience. It is situated at the collision of three well-defined and distinguished regionsCentral Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Northeastern Balkans. Here, the civilizations of West and East and of Catholicism and Orthodoxy meet. The history of the Romanian archives mirrors in the best way the specifics of this intersection of cultures and civilizations. This article offers only a synthetic introduction to the history and the present circumstances of the Romanian archives. It comprises two distinct parts. The first, the larger one, traces the archives through the epochs of Romanian history: antiquity, Middle Ages, modern times, the Greater Romania and the Communist periods. Further, there is information about the documentary libraries of the state archives. The second part is an examination of the condition of the archives in Romania nowadays