Istorijski arhiv Kotor – pamćenje grada

Abstract

Kotor was the first town in the present-day Montenegro to have autonomous archival institution. The State Archives in Kotor was established on 30th November 1949. This piece of information points out to the awareness of the importance of archival cultural heritage that was being created in Kotor and in the wider region of Boka Kotorska Bay through centuries, as well as on the need for its preservation and presentation to expert and general public. It is, however, important to mention that as early as in 1417 a provision in the Book of Statutes of the Town of Kotor, printed in Venice in 1616 the oldest provision of which dates back to 1301, lays down a duty for all important acts created in the work of public institutions to be stored in three storages: St. Tryphon Cathedral reliquary, municipal office and in the office of the notary public. The year 1764 saw Marin Vrakjen being officially appointed as archivist in Kotor. Today, Kotor Historical Archives houses archival material created in the work of local authorities, legal entities and natural persons in Kotor but also in the wider region of Boka Kotorska and other parts of the present-day Montenegrin littoral up to Spič, in the vicinity of Bar. Archival departments in Herceg Novi, Budva and Bar also house part of the archival material created in their respective areas, just as church archives and museums do. The oldest document kept in Kotor Historical Archives dates back to 1309. It is a fragment of a contract for the sale of a property written on a piece of parchment. The task of every archival institution, thus also of Kotor Historical Archives, is to explore archival records of historical-scientific importance related to the events from political, social, economic and cultural life of Boka Kotorska spanning from the ancient past to the modern era; to study the documents by applying scientific methods, prepare them for the scholars of various fields, to publish collections of archival documents by different topics and to open wide its door to all those interested in the history of our town and the surrounding area.