Archival Heritage of Religious Communities in Croatia and

Archival Heritage of Religious Communities in Croatia and Possibilities for its e-Accessibility Dražen Kušen State Archives in Osijek 31000 Osijek, K. Firingera 1 drazen. kusen@dao. hr

Croatia – Influences during the History The Mediterranean influence Central European influence Social migrations CROATIA Western infuelce Political influences Religious influences Eastern influences

Croatian Identity today Multiethnic Multireligious Multicultural

The most important religious Communities contributing to archival Herritage in Croatia n Roman catholic Church ¨ (roman n tradition) Greek catholic Church ¨ (byzantine church) n n tradition – unity with Roman catholic Serbian ortodox Church Reformation Churches Jewis religious Community Islam religious Community

Necessary to understand typology and hierarchical archive levels of Croatian religious communities n typology and the importance of the preserved archives content n most important data resources and their application n

Dispersion religious Archival heritage in two different contexts: The holdings and collections of archival heritage of religious communities, which are preserved in public archive institutions as their own materials. n The holdings and collections which are preserved within the religious institutions and archives as their own materials. n

Register n The result of the cooperation between Croatian state archive and the religious communities: ¨ Register of archive funds and collections of Republic of Croatia, which was published in 2006. ¨ ARHi. NET - a network information system for describing, processing and managing archival material. n The most religious communities do not have any published registers of their own archives

Access n Access to religious archives is mainly limited, but varies in different institutions. ¨ There are some archives which are easy to access, including via internet ¨ The other ones with limited or no access to rather at all conventional documents.

Content of religious Archives n n n The records about the history of the very institutions. The other holdings and collections, gathered, donated or deposited during the history. The most important documents: ¨ notarial documents, ¨ register of births, marriages and deaths, ¨ records of Canon visitations (inspections) and ¨ Status animarum

Some Illustrations of Materials in Archives of the Catholic Church

Some Examples of good Practice in Croatia n The one hundred year old cooperation between Roman Catholic Archdiocese archives in Zagreb and Croatian State Archives n Jewish research and documenting Center “Cendo”Zagreb

Endeavors at international Level International Council on Archives (ICA) “Section of Archives of Churches and Religious Denominations” (SKR) n UNESCO portal has the links of the religious communities archives, associations and organizations all over the world which take care of religious heritage archive n

A material assumptions (preparatory work) for e-Accessibility

Necessary Activities professional assessment of the condition material protection intellectual protection: expert processing of material and staff training perspective: collaboration with IT professionals

Partners in the Process Archival profession Financial partners (governments, NGOs, sponzors) Religious communities

Thank you for your attention! Dražen Kušen State Archives in Osijek 31000 Osijek, K. Firingera 1 drazen. kusen@dao. hr