On this day: April 9, 1946 – according to the decision of the Executive People’s Committee of the City of Belgrade (September 26, 1945), the Historical Archives of Belgrade started to work. On that day, Archives’ only employee, Lazar Ćelap, began to process the documentation preserved in the fonds the Zemun Magistrate with great enthusiasm. He also brought in colleagues and friends who helped organize the extensive materials that had arrived at the Archives.
The Belgrade Archives was initially not only spatially but also budgetary linked to the Library and Museum of the Municipality of Belgrade, until 1947 when it officially became an independent institution.
The next important event came in 1954 when the City People's Committee decided to allocate the building of the former Class Lottery on the corner of Vasina and Zmaj Jovina Streets to the Archive. Although it was not a purpose-built building, with adaptation and adjustment to the needs of the archive, it was an acceptable solution. The Archive remained in that building until 1973 when it moved to a new building in New Belgrade.
From its first steps in 1946, in difficult conditions, still part of the Library, with only two storage rooms and the holdings of the Zemun Magistrate, the Historical Archives of Belgrade, after eight decades, stands as a modernly equipped cultural institution, where nearly 14 linear kilometers of documents are preserved.
The Historical Archives of Belgrade today carry out all activities related to the protection, organization and processing of archival material; also it is dedicated to publishing and presenting cultural and educational material important for the history of Belgrade, but also of Serbia, the former Yugoslavia, and Southeast Europe.