PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Corporate Body

Preferred form:

Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (Barcelona, España)Alternative forms (other languages) Other forms

Fechas de Existencia:

1318

History:

Jaime II of Aragon ordered its creation in 1318. It was considered the Royal Archive, strict property of the monarch, for centuries. It was located in the Royal Palace of Barcelona until 1770. The governing and justice documents, among other registers of the chancellery, were guarded there together with the writings concerning the royal heritage. The office became a more complicated structure: the King named his first archivist, with this precise name, in 1346 and he gave him some practical rules about his charge in 1384.

The Bourbon Monarchy built a new plant (1738) and wrote detailed internal regulations (1754). It was also given a new name: Archive of the Crown of Aragon (Archivo de la Corona de Aragón). Well into the 19th century, the archivist Pròsper de Bofarull (1859) showed his knowledge about the old history of Catalonia with his publication of "Los Condes de Barcelona Vindicados" (1836). At the same time, he tried to increase the Archive's fonds by incorporating historic files and archives concerning some institutions that disappeared during his term. His successors followed his courses of action.

The Archive of the Crown of Aragon still conserves documentation of the Counts of Barcelona and Kings of Aragon, Valencia and Majorca (9th to 17th century). It also collects the files of different civil and church institutions and private files of the Spanish territories from the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia) comprised between 10th and 20th centuries.

The Archive of the Crown of Aragon has two headquarters:

-Palau del Lloctinent: this palace is a historic building created with Montjuic stone by Antoni Carbonell between 1549 and 1557. It appears in the Historic and Artistic Buildings of Barcelona Catalogue and it is known as a Monument of National Interest. Its origins lie in a decree of the Cortes celebrated by the emperor Charles V in Monzón in 1547. This previously mentioned decree demanded an enlargement of the Main Royal Palace with the main objective of being the headquarters of the Viceroy of Catalonia.

-Headquarters of Almogàvers Street: new building inaugurated in 1994. It consists of two bodies: in the first one, there are three floors, where the customer service, reading room, offices, laboratories and other services are located; and, in the second one, there are 12 safety rooms with the Archive's documentation throughout its four floors.

Places

area jurisdiccional:

Aragón (corona, jurisdicción antigua, España)

Barcelona (España)

localización:

Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (Barcelona, España)

Subjects

pertenece a:

Archivos públicos

Mandates/Legal Sources

Description:

-Cortes de Barcelona de 1422: De les scriptures del Archiu. [Que cualquiera pueda solicitar y obtener copia o traslado de las escrituras del archivo real, salvo las tocantes a los intereses o patrimonio reales]. Art. 10. Cortes de Barcelona de 1422. Fecha de sanción: 22-04-1422.

-Real Cédula del 7 de febrero de 1754 por la que Su Majestad aprueba el nuevo reglamento para el gobierno del archivo de la Corona de Aragón. Signatura: ACA, Real Audiencia, registro 385, fols. 38v-45v