What do we preserve?

The main role of the Archives of the City of Brussels is to safeguard the documents produced by the municipal administration since the Middle Ages.

The service also collects and stores a large number of documents (brochures, advertising flyers, etc.), however unimportant or modest they may be, so that future generations can have a full and faithful image of as many aspects of Brussels life as possible.

Presentation of the collections

Distinction between the ACB and other archive services

Library

Presentation of the collections

The wealth of the collections means that we can gain a picture of the different facets of Brussels history since the Middle Ages.

The collections are divided into ten sections, which can be viewed via the online catalogue and are composed of private, family and professional archives. The third-largest collection of newspapers and periodicals in Belgium. An iconographic collection of more than 35,000 documents, including drawings, engravings and photos. A large collection of maps and plans. A collection of posters and advertisements of all kinds. And, of course, administrative collections from the various services of the City administration, such as charities, religious groups and burials, finances, public education, fine arts and public festivals, police, streets and municipal public works.

Distinction between the ACB and other archive services

The Archives of the City of Brussels (ACB) store exclusively the administrative records of the Brussels municipality and those of the adjoining municipalities of Haren, Laeken and Neder-Over-Heembeek. In the Brussels Region, the archives of the Civil Registry, the Population Registry and the other municipal services are stored by the archives services of the different municipal entitles. For building permits from the Region's other municipalities, please contact the municipality in which the building was constructed. To search for people who lived outside the territory of the City of Brussels, please also contact the archives service of the municipality in question and not the Archives of the City of Brussels.

Searches in the Archives of the City of Brussels can be effectively supplemented by documents kept in the National Archives of Belgium, whose role is to preserve the archives of the Federal State institutions and their legal predecessors, as well as by those relating to the different welfare institutions in Brussels from the Middle Ages to the present day, which are stored by the Brussels Public Social Welfare Centre.

Library

The Archives Service has built up a library which currently contains almost 25,000 volumes. The library contains many publications that touch on a wide variety of subjects - but primarily history, urban issues, culture and archives - and one of its main features is its focus on Brussels. This makes it a goldmine for researchers, hobbyists and students working on the Belgian capital.

The Service has approximately 350 priceless works (PDF, 259.27 KB). These works, and the descriptions of works acquired before 2004, can be found in the card catalogue of the scientific library. The descriptions of works acquired after 2004 can be found in the online catalogue.

The Archives Service Library is not a lending library. All the works can only be consulted in the reading room.

BRUSSELS ARCHIVES

What do we preserve?