Felixarchief (Stadsarchief Antwerpen)
- City Archive Antwerp
- SAA
Address
Phone
Fax
Geographical and Cultural Context
The FelixArchives looks after the documents of the Antwerp city council, the city and OCMW administration with all its services. This is the core task of the city and OCMW archives. The city archive stimulates the study of Antwerp's history and responds to the requests of Antwerp citizens to know more about their own history. The FelixArchives' collection should reflect the social activities of Antwerp's citizens as closely as possible. To show a rich and complete picture of the city's historical-social development, the government archives are supplemented by private archives. They are a very important source for the city's historical research. The department of private archives also includes the archives of companies and associations, which constitute a historical treasure for researching the city's social, cultural and economic life.
Mandates/Sources of Authority
The Archive works directly under the authority of the city secretary.
Building(s)
In 1998, the vacant Sint-Felix warehouse, which is protected as a monument, was chosen as the new location for the city archives. Robbrecht and Daem architects drew up the plans for the drastic renovation, which started in 2002. On 18 August 2006, the new city archive was inaugurated in the renovated Sint-Felix warehouse and renamed the FelixArchief. In the building 18 air-conditioned archive containers were built, so that the archives could be stored in optimal conditions. The containers originally had a storage capacity of almost 34 kilometres of archives, but this was subsequently expanded to more than 38 kilometres. In order to use as much space as possible, the archive documents are no longer grouped together according to their content, but rather according to their format. A new database ensures that the archive documents can be found easily. In 2006, the reading room had 94 places and 13 microfilm machines.
In 2007, the digital repository was put into use. In 2007, the digital repository was put into use, which was put online in 2010. In 2009, the development of a scanning studio was started. Since 2010, the city archive manages the depot in the new administrative centre of the city of Den Bell. This has a storage capacity of almost 6 kilometres of archive. Also from 2010 onwards, files requested by the city services are only delivered in digital form. As of 2011, the city archive scans all incoming mail from the city and as of 2014 all incoming mail is also sorted there. In 2019, all microfilm machines were removed and the space that was freed up was taken up by a greatly expanded digitisation department.
Archival and Other Holdings
The City Archive Antwerp preserves more than 30 linear kilometers and more than 100 Tb of archival material from both urban and private archive makers. The oldest document was drawn up in the Middle Ages, the most recent last year. The Archive primarily preserves the documents of the Antwerp city government and the city administration with all its services. The urban archives consist of: the Ancien Régime archive (<1794), the Modern archive (today 1794) and the municipal archives (1794-1983).
In addition to these urban archives, the Felix Archive is responsible for preserving the archives of the Autonomous Municipal Companies; urban education, AG Vespa and the port authority. In time, the archives of ZiekenhuisNetwerk Antwerpen will also be added.
The City Archive collection must reflect the social activities of Antwerp residents as well as possible. To show a rich and complete picture of the historical-social development of the city, the government archives are supplemented with private archives .
Finding Aids, Guides, and Publication
An online overview of the Archive's catalogue with a search feature can be found here: https://felixarchief.antwerpen.be/archievenoverzicht
Links to finding aids: http://zoeken.felixarchief.be
Opening Times
Tuesday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 pm.
Documents can be requested until 3:30 p.m.
Conditions of Access
A visit to the reading room is only possible after making a reservation. Both paper archive documents and a computer to consult digital copyrighted documents must be reserved in advance. A visit to the reading room is free as is the assistants provided by reading room supervisors.
Documents may be requested between 8.30 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. with a maximum of 15 inventory numbers per day. It is recommended that visitors try to reserve as much as possible in advance.
For further information on the reading room regulations, please see:
Accessibility
Just in front of the building on the Oudeleeuwenrui there are four spacious parking facilities for users with disabilities.
Research Services
The City Archive Antwerp's reading room is accessible to all users of the archive. More than 100 workplaces are available and there is a number of computers available for researchers to consult digital records. The reading room also has a free WIFI network. There is always an employee present who can support you with advice or practical tips.
It is possible to have an employee of the Archives carry out research at the rate of 42 euros per hour.
For more information on rates for various services offered by the Archives, see: https://felixarchief.antwerpen.be/hulppagina?tab=hulppagina-sectie-leeszaal&page=hulppagina-leeszaal-bezoeken-tarieven
Reproduction Services
Visitors to the archive may take photos of certain documents themselves. Because of the vulnerability of many archive documents, a number of conditions are attached to this. Permission must first be sought from the reading room supervisor. Plans from construction files that are less than 125 years old are protected by copyright. Only after completing a declaration will visitors be allowed to take photographs.
Photograph regulations for the reading room are as follows:
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Visitors may only photograph copyright-free works.
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For construction files younger than 125 years, visitors must fill out a form in which they declare that will only use the documents for private purposes.
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Visitors may not pass on copies to third parties or distribute them in any way.
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If the copy is intended for publication, a request regarding reproduction rights must be made. To do this, visitors should register at the counter.
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Direct contact between the archive item and the copying equipment, e.g. using a hand scanner, is not permitted.
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Bookends must be used for registries.
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The document to be photographed may not be larger than the table surface.
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The use of flash or other external light sources is not permitted
Photocopies:
Making a photocopy of an archive item is not allowed as it can damage unique documents. The books from the hand library may be copied. The fee is 0.15 euros (via Bancontact) per copy or visitors can scan the required pages yourself and send them to an e-mail address for free.
Reproductions:
The Felix Archive provides a digitisation service. The scans are delivered in the .pdf file type via e-mail. The process of scanning and sending the documents takes approximately 2 working days after the order has been confirmed. With regards to construction files, the complete file is always reproduced at the cost of € 20 per file. For all other records, the rate is € 12 per page (<A0). With the latter, the scans of these are delivered in 3 file types via e-mail (.pdf, .tiff or .jpg).
Sources
Pierre-Alain Tallier (dir.), Gertjan Desmet & Pascale Falek-Alhadeff, Sources pour l'histoire des populations juives et du judaïsme en Belgique/Bronnen voor de geschiedenis van de Joden en het Jodendom in België, 19de-21ste eeuw, Brussel, ARA-AGR/Avant-Propos, 2016, 1,328 p.
City Archive Antwerp website consulted on 22/07/2019
Wikipedia website Antwerp City Archives