Archives de l’État à Liège / Rijksarchief te Luik

The French law of 26 October 1796 (5 Brumaire V) laid the foundations of the organisational structure of the present-day Belgian State Archives. The law stipulated that the archives of institutions and administrations abolished by the French authorities were to be collected and preserved at the regional metropolis of each newly created ‘Département’. In 1831, the archive depot in Brussels was officially named the “Archives Générales du Royaume” (National Archives of Belgium). By virtue of the Royal Decree of 17 December 1851, the “Archives de l’État dans les Provinces” (State Archives in the Provinces) were placed under the authority of the National Archivist.

Now broadly known as ‘the State Archives of Belgium’, the National Archives and the State Archives in the Provinces are a federal academic organisation that forms part of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO). The State Archives are made up of the National Archives in Brussels and 17 State Archives that are distributed throughout the country. The State Archives’ role is to ensure the proper preservation of archival documents produced and managed by the state authorities. In order to fulfil its responsibilities, the State Archives issue directives and recommendations; conduct inspections and organise training for civil servants. The State Archives also act as an advisory body for the construction and preparation of premises for the conservation of archives and for the organisation of archive management within public institutions. The State Archives obtain and preserve (following sorting) archival documents that are at least 30 years old from courts, tribunals, public authorities, notaries and from the private sector and private individuals (companies, politicians, associations and societies, influential families, etc. that have played an important role in society). They ensure that public archives are transferred according to strict archival standards.

When the State Archives repository in Huy closed its doors in 2007, its fonds were transferred to Liège.

Today, the State Archives in Liège are the largest archive in Wallonia and the third largest in the country: it currently houses approximately 25 linear kilometres of archives.

The State Archives in Liège preserve archives of institutions or communities, families or individuals whose residence is or was connected to the territory of the province of Liege, with the exception of the district of Eupen whose records are kept in State Archives of Eupen. Documents previously kept in the State Archives in Huy were transferred to Liège in 2007, following the closure of the archive.

For a more detailed overview of the collections of the State Archives in Liège, see:

http://arch.arch.be/index.php?l=fr&m=en-pratique&r=nos-salles-de-lecture&d=liege#archives-conservees

There are several online search engines: keyword, archives, creator, persons, themes (http://search.arch.be/). In order to facilitate access to documents, archivists produce academic reference works aimed at users, such as archive group overviews, guides, historical source studies and, in particular, inventories and search guides with detailed indexes. The search guides can be consulted in the reading room, and they are currently subject to a digitisation initiative, which aims to make them fully accessible on-line or via the intranet available on the computers in all the depositories of the State Archives.

State Archives guides and inventories may also be downloaded or purchased from the following link:

http://webshop.arch.be/

Specific guides to the collections held by the State Archives in Liège include:

• DUMONT Bruno, Guide des fonds et collections des Archives de l'État à Liège, publication n°5152, Archives Générales du Royaume, Bruxelles, 2012.

• DELVAUX Anne-Catherine, Guide des archives de la sidérurgie liégeoise, série Guides 78, publ. n°5114, Bruxelles, 2012.