Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden
- Leeuwarden Historical Center
- HCL
Address
Phone
History
The Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden emerged in 2001 from the former municipal archives of Leeuwarden (the oldest city archive in the Netherlands).
Records Management and Collecting Policies
Apart from the governmental materials, the Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden also collects archives of clubs and individuals. Anyone can offer its archive collection or old photographs to the centur for safekeeping.
Archival and Other Holdings
The oldest document in the Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden is from the 13th century. Newer archives include population registers from the 19th and 20th century. In the course of time the archives of municipal institutions such as schools and the police were also managed by the HCL. Later the churches also gave their archives. Furthermore collected archives of companies, families and associations are also managed by the center. The HCL now has 3,000 linear meters of archives over 250 different agencies and individuals.
Finding Aids, Guides, and Publication
The online search engine of the Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden can be found here.
Opening Times
The Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden is open from Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 5pm and on Saturday and Sunday from 1 pm to 5pm.
Conditions of Access
On Saturdays and Sundays, the reading room is open on a self-service basis. This means no pieces from the depots can be requested. However, it is possible to request documents by e-mail no later than Thursday morning.
Accessibility
It is a ten minute walk from the Leeuwarden train station to the Leeuwarden Historisch Centrum.
There are two parking lots close to the archive, a map and more information on accessibility can be found here. The public areas of the HCL are easily accessible to wheelchair and mobility scooter users.