Styrian state archive, Provincial archive in Graz, Austria

The Styrian State Archive is housed since 2000 in the former Carmelite monastery at Karmeliterplatz 3 in Graz, built from 1628 to 1631 to plans by Domenico Torre for Archduke Ferdinand. The monastery was secularized under Josephinian reforms and its church tower demolished; the building later served as a garrison hospital and gendarmerie headquarters. The archive holds around 58,000 charters, 15,000 Styrian town views, 90,000 postcards, and the Georgenberg Pact manuscript.

The archive's origins lie in the Joanneum, founded in 1811, whose collections already functioned as a regional repository; Archduke Johann used the term "Landesarchiv" in 1814. In 1868 the Landtag voted to merge the Joanneum and Landstände archives, creating the Styrian State Archive, which served as a model for Upper Austria's archive in 1896. Since 2000 all holdings are housed in the former Carmelite monastery on Karmeliterplatz.

The collection reflects how people lived in the region through administrative documents and family records spanning different periods. Visitors can trace daily life and social structures of Styria across the centuries through these materials.

Visitors should plan ahead since accessing documents requires prior registration and coordination. Some materials have access restrictions, so it is worth checking the requirements before visiting.

The archive holds the Lutz South-East Collection, with over 4,500 volumes, nearly a thousand maps and 185 pictures. It also keeps all 40,000 Styrian land registers from the 17th century to 1948, and files of the Inner Austrian authorities covering Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia and Trieste.