History and responsibilities
Skive City Archive was established as a local history archive in 1966 by teacher Svend Mortensen, who became the first city archivist. In 1989, his son, historian Niels Mortensen, took over as city archivist, while historian Kristian Buhl Thomsen has been the city archivist since 2019. The collection contains local history material mainly from the period from 1850 to the present.
Since 2007, the City Archive has also had the status of a Section 7 municipal archive, whereby we store municipal paper documents that are subject to preservation according to the Archives Act. These are mainly from the period 1868-2006. Skive Municipality’s digital archive files are archived at the Danish National Archives. The municipal records come from Skive Municipality, Sallingsund, Spøttrup and Sundsøre Municipalities as well as from the former Skive Købstad and the area’s former parish municipalities.
Skive City Archives is part of Museum Sallings Arkiv-team, which in addition to the City Archives consists of the local archives for Fur, Sundsøre, Sallingsund and Spøttrup. We are also a member of the Association of Local Archives.
We preserve history
The city archivist, a couple of archive assistants and a group of volunteers work in the premises at Gammel Skivehus. The work includes collecting, registering, preserving and making local historical sources available, including scanning photos that are published on Arkiv.dk.
Skive’s oldest house
Over the years, Skive Byarkiv has had premises at various addresses, including the library in Asylgade and Skive Museum on Havnevej. Since 2022, the City Archive has been located at Gammel Skivehus on Søndre Boulevard 1A, which is Skive’s oldest non-denominational building.
It was at Gammel Skivehus that the royal sheriffs lived from the 1300s to the 1600s. Back then, Gammel Skivehus was a much larger building complex than today. The sheriff administered the royal estate and was responsible for collecting taxes. This made him the king’s highest official in the Skive region. Gammel Skivehus later passed into private ownership as a manor house and later from 1928 as part of the hotel complex next door.
Before the archive moved in in 2022, Gammel Skivehus underwent extensive restoration with respect for the building’s history. The basement under the house dates from the end of the 15th century, while the half-timbered house itself dates from 1719.
