Stadtarchiv Luzern
- City Archive Luzern
Address
Phone
Mandates/Sources of Authority
In accordance with its legal mandate (Municipal Act, § 32 para. 2), the City Archive supports legal certainty, continuous and rational administrative management, as well as transparency and traceability of government action by permanently storing and processing documents. It also provides a basis for research.
Administrative Structure
The City Archive is a department of the City Chancellery.
Building(s)
Since October 2015, the City Archives have been located in the new building at Ruopigenstrasse 38, 6015 Lucerne.
Finding Aids, Guides, and Publication
Please note that the analogue search tools in the reading room of the City Archives offer further access to the possessions and subjects of the city's history.
Publications: read about series here.
Opening Times
Monday, Tuesday: 13:30-17:00
Wednesday: 13:00-19:00
Friday: closed
Conditions of Access
The City Archive is open to the public and freely accessible to all interested parties during opening hours.
The archive material and library stock can only be consulted on site at the City Archives. To avoid waiting times, order the archive material you want in advance by e-mail (stadtarchiv@stadtluzern.ch) or telephone (041 208 73 80) no later than the day of the visit. Enter your intended use, the signature and title of the archive material.
There are archive materials that are excluded from use for conservation reasons or because of protection periods.
Files are subject to an embargo period of at least 30 years. In the case of particularly sensitive personal data, the embargo period is 100 (in certain cases 120) years. The data subject himself can access his own files without an embargo period, but an assessment must first be made as to whether interests of third parties deserving protection will be harmed. The embargo period can be lifted for scientific work. Requests must be sent to the City Archives via an online form. For the inspection of building plans that are less than 30 years old, a written power of attorney from the house owner, the homeowner, must be shown.
The use of private archives is regulated by contract. Some can only be viewed with the owner's permission. This can be seen in the inventory description in the online archive catalogue under Conditions of use.
Research Services
The city archive is happy to receive enquiries by phone or in writing (e-mail, post). However, due to limited human resources, the city archive can only provide a global overview and cannot accept full research assignments. A visit to the archive cannot therefore always be avoided. Answering simple questions is free of charge. More extensive enquiries (more than 15 minutes) are carried out only according to human resources and are subject to a fee.
The city archive provides several leaflets to support research. For school classes and university events, the city archive also offers research workshops in the archive
Reproduction Services
The reading room offers eight to ten individual workstations as well as three microfilm reading stations (subject to reservation) and a photocopying facility. A reference library is also available for consultation on site. Use your own laptop for research in our online catalogues. Bring a digital camera or mobile phone to make your own copies of documents.