General National Archive (Nicaragua)

The General National Archive () is charged with conserving the documentary heritage of Nicaragua, standardizing the national archival system, and promoting research and access to information.
History.
A presidential decree on February 21, 1863 regulated the functions of the General Governmental Archive (Spanish: "Archivo General del Gobierno"), which was to be composed of the documents of the nascent institutions and supervised by the Minister of Finance. But it was not until July 7, 1896, that President José Santos Zelaya decreed the creation of the General National Archive as the repository for the holdings of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, as well as holding the archives of the municipalities.
The earthquake of March 31, 1931 provoked a fire that destroyed the majority of the archives, including the "Sección de Tierras", which included documents from the colonial era.
In October 1959, another decree was issued to regulate the operations of the archive. Until 1979, it was under the auspices of the Ministry of Governance, at which point in came under the control of the Ministry of Culture. With the administrative reforms of 1988, the archive came under the General Administration of Culture of the Ministry of Education. It was later ascribed to the Nicaraguan Historical Institute and since 1990 has been run by the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture.
Functions.
The functions of the General National Archive include:
Holdings.
The archive holds approximately ten million documents, which are organized in the following collections:
Services.
The Archive offers such services as a reading room, an auxiliary consultative library, and photocopying.
Location.
The General National Archive is housed on the second floor of the National Museum of Nicaragua, which is located in the old Palacio Nacional, across from the new Palacio Nacional in Managua.