Exterior view of the State Archives building.Detail of the pediment of the Croatian State Archives building.Mrs. Laura Bush views a large wall mural on April 5, 2008, during her tour at the Croatian State Archives.
The Croatian State Archives trace their origin to a 1643 decision of the Croatian Sabor in which the Kingdom's treasurer (blagajnik) Ivan Zakmardi is instructed to create an inventory of all the laws, charters and other documents. This was followed by the commission to construct a special chest at the Kingdom's expense which would house the most important documents in the aforementioned inventory.[1] The chest only had symbolic meaning, since it could only house a negligible amount of documentation and was located on the grounds of the Bishopric of Zagreb. The number of laws and regulation were subsequently passed in relation to archiving documents.
The Croatian Parliament named Ladislaus Kiraly as the first archivist of the kingdom in 1744, transferring the chest and the rest of the documentation to the Saint Mark's square in 1763.[citation needed]
