Sipping Coffee with the Viceroy – the Background of Constructing the Building of the University Library and the Territorial Archives in Zagreb

Temeljnu odrednicu teksta čini pokušaj raščlanjivanja društvenog položaja Zemaljskog arhiva i njegovih zaposlenika na prijelazu 19. i 20. st. odnosno do preseljenja u novoizgrađenu zgradu na tadašnjem Mažuranićevom trgu. Posebna je pozornost posvećena lošim materijalnim uvjetima djelovanja, kao i načinima kojima su zaposlenici arhiva nastojali poboljšati stanje vlastite struke nerijetko se koristeći i privatnim, rodbinskim i prijateljskim vezama s pripadnicima vladajućih političkih struktura.Two and a half centuries since its foundation and more than one hundred and sixty years since its formal institutionalisation, the Territorial Archives in Zagreb was for the first time accommodated in the appropriate space exclusively intended for storage and use of the archives. This article uses available archival sources and literature to show the thorny path trod by the most important employees of that institution at the turn of the 19th to 20th century as they were trying to influence the improvement of the Archives’ status among other cultural and scientific institutions and thus the archival profession on the whole by endeavouring to change the sensibility towards written historical heritage. The central part in that process was played by the territorial archivist I. Bojničić and his long-time associate and later director E. Laszowski. The latter’s private, kindred and friendly relationship with N. Tomašić, Croatian viceroy at the time, led to the initiative to place the rooms of the Territorial Archives in the building of the University Library at Mažurani≥ Square, even though nothing of the sort was remotely planned when the construction plans were laid out. A single signature at the right moment was enough to solve the fundamental issues of the institution and the profession. This was fortunate because of what followed, yet also unfortunate; due to the fact it unequivocally confirmed that all the previous attempts were in vain, lost in the maze of various legislative and executive offices