Hungarian state purchases Batthyany family documents

The Hungarian state has purchased a collection of 520 documents pertaining to the aristocratic Hungarian Batthyány family, stored for the past 75 years in Vienna, for 5.6 million euros, an official of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Monday.

The documents are destined for the National Archives which already keeps materials related to the Batthyány family, such as the documents related to the ill-fated 1526 Battle of Mohács, state secretary Balázs Orbán told a press conference.

When to forced to leave Communist Hungary in 1945, the family took several hundred documents with them.

The archives’ director, Csaba Szabó, told the event that

the collection which arrived in Budapest two weeks ago was “unique” and of great significance in terms of Hungarian history.

György Rácz, chief archivist, noted that members of the Batthyany family had filled important government positions over several centuries.

The documents will be digitised and available for research purposes.

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Source: MTI