For 58 years, the former military building on the St-Esprit Plateau served as the main seat of Luxembourg's National Archive. But eventually the building's capacity was stretched, unable to house the collection of around 50km of documents.
When Josée Kirps became director in 2003, there was talk of a new building, but it took over two decades to get there.
At the time it seemed as though it would function seamlessly: I took over as director, then we were to get a new building and complete the move. But unfortunately it was not the case. The construction project was delayed twice due to financing issues. Then the government cut costs and we were delayed once again.
While the architect has remained the same, the project is a good size smaller than the previous plans. The 56 rooms planned for Belval should accommodate up to 100km of documents.
Preparations for the move began months ago. Besides ensuring that the documents are all in the correct condition to be moved, the biggest challenge was coordinating where and when items should be moved.
In 2014, around half of the documents moved, which proved to be a useful exercise for planning this move. But it still represented a challenge in terms of keeping an overview.
"We had an internal bet running that we'd move in February 2026 and welcome our first clients. But we missed it by a few months", says deputy director Gilles Regener.
At the start of May, staff moved to the new building as a first step. On 8 June, the first lorry containing documents was unloaded. Over the coming months, three lorries a day are expected to continue moving documents from the old depot to Belval.
Conservator Philippe Nilles, who is coordinating the move, said it was hard to estimate when the project will be finished.
It takes as long as it takes. It's not a race, it's moving an entire national archive. We have set aside about half a year, so expect to be finished in January 2027. That's the plan and then we have to see at what pace we can move forward.
The old reading room closed on 8 May and the new one will be opened in Belval on 24 June. Visitors will once again be able to consult the documents, including those in old depots, as well as the ones that have been scanned into Belval.
