ARCHIVE OF THE SERBIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES – Sremski Karlovci

The establishment of the Archive is linked to one of the most significant historical events in the modern history of the Serbian people: the Great Migration of the Serbs under Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević in 1690. At that time, a part of the Serbian hierarchy and population transferred a number of books, sacred inventory, charters of medieval Serbian rulers, synodical letters, diplomas, and other documents from the Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire to the Habsburg Monarchy.

This core documentation was subsequently supplemented by correspondence conducted by Patriarch Arsenije III and his successors—either in their capacity as representatives of national-church and educational autonomy or as private individuals—with secular, ecclesiastical, and military institutions or individuals in the Habsburg Monarchy, Serbia, Russia, and other countries. During World War II, the Archive was closed by the German-Ustaše authorities and partially damaged. At the request of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAN), the Holy Hierarchical Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, on July 4, 1949, handed over the Archive “for safekeeping and final arrangement of the Metropolitanate and Consistory of Sremski Karlovci” for use in scientific research. The Academy provided the resources, personnel, and conditions for this, secured the return of 81 charters from Vienna, and accepted materials from inadequate and unsecured locations into the Archive—including the Archive of the Karlovac Magistrate, the Karlovac Gymnasium, and others. It also received certain amounts of documents and materials from citizens, purchased some, and microfilmed a large portion of the Dalmatian Eparchy records at the Historical Archive in Zadar.

Chronologically, the unified archival materials in the Karlovac Archive of SAN cover the period from the mid-16th century to the 1970s, with references to an earlier past. The materials were written by people of various professions, in Serbian (and its older variants), German, Latin, Russian-Slavic, Hungarian, Italian, Greek, Romanian, and several other European languages. Content-wise, they include petitions, complaints, reports, memoranda, minutes, contracts, wills, correspondence, population registers, and similar documents. The materials are still being organized, placed in protective boxes, conserved, and shielded from moisture and other damage. Currently, they are classified into 44 collections and 10 smaller sub-collections.

Today, the Archive holds nearly three million documents. For most of them, there exist original or subsequently created administrative protocols and registers, abstracts, personal card files, and summary lists. As a whole, these materials constitute a first-class source for the political, cultural, and economic history of the Serbian people in the Habsburg Monarchy, especially concerning churches and religious life; schools, education, literature, and art; and the diverse relations of Serbs with various Eurasian peoples. Ilarion and Dimitrije Ruvarac, Radoslav M. Grujić, Mita Kostić, Dejan Medaković, Vasilije Krestić, Slavko Gavrilović, Nikola Gavrilović are among the many researchers who have based their books, studies, and articles on these materials or published them in journals and thematic collections.

The Archive of SAN in Sremski Karlovci is the first modernly organized archive in the modern history of Serbia. The earliest known inventory dates back to 1719. The Archive also houses a library of over 2,500 books.

Text taken from www.sanu.ac.rs