Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv

The Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Lviv (TsDIAL of Ukraine) was founded in 1784 as the Imperial-Royal Office of Ancient Galician Castle and Land Acts and Corroboration of Documents. It has also long been known as the Bernardine Archives, after its location in the buildings of the Bernardine Monastery (1600–1630; 3a Soborna Square), an architectural monument of national significance and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. A further part of the archives is housed in the Royal Arsenal (1638–1650; 13 Pidvalna Street). Today TsDIAL of Ukraine holds more than 1,120,000 files dating from the early twelfth to the twenty-first century, among them 331 documents designated as unique. Despite martial law, the archives have continued to operate from the first day of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, fulfilling one of their core functions: safeguarding their documentary and irreplaceable historical heritage.

One of the archives’ key fonds is the Collection of Parchment Charters (fond 131), which preserves birchbark documents from the early twelfth century, together with international agreements, papal bulls, and privileges granted by patriarchs, monarchs, and other authorities. The fond has been digitised in full and is available through ARCHIUM.

The archives maintain an official website (https://tsdial.archives.gov.ua/index.html), pages on Facebook and Instagram, and a dedicated YouTube channel. Digital copies are published on the archives’ website, on ARCHIUM, and on the sites of international partners, notably FamilySearch International. Documents can be located remotely through the Inter-Archival Search Portal, ARCHIUM, and the FamilySearch website, as well as via the “E-archive” section of the archives’ website. The archives also respond to enquiries from users in Ukraine and abroad.

The lecture will be of interest to historians, genealogists, archivists, medievalists, students, and all those researching the history of Ukraine and of Central and Eastern Europe.