The first three settlements, Alsógallát, Felsőgallát and Bánhida were first mentioned in the 13th century charters. The 1896 mine-opening stimulated the development of the Tatabánya region. The settlement was given a small settlement title in 1902, and a municipality rank in 1923. The leaders of Tatabánya started thinking about unifying the settlements of Tatabánya, Alsógallát, Felsőgallát and Bánfalva during the 1930s. However, the city of Tatabánya was only officially established later, in 1947. During the following years, the city developed significantly and it soon became the Chief Town of the County. The Archives of Tatabánya City of County Right is the youngest public collection of the city. From the 1970s the decision-makers of the County started thinking about establishing a Branch Archives of Tatabánya, but the plan was only realized after the 1989 transition. The municipality of the City founded the Branch Archives of Tatabánya. This Archives was part of the Komárom-Esztergom County Archives, which was located in Esztergom. The leaders of the Chief Town of the County already recommended that the city had to maintain the new archive. The major change came when the Archives of Tatabánya City of County Right became an independent archives in 1995. The rapid economic and social changes in the 1990s caused that it was no longer possible to store the documents and records of the archives, which were originally stored in the repositories of the public collection of the City Hall, because the city institutions were either shut down or moved to different offices. Therefore, urgent steps had to be taken to solve the storage of the documents of the Archives. The municipality decided to renovate the old City Hall of Tatabánya (today: Felsőgalla Community Service House) in 1995. This, however, also gave a chance to the Archives to obtain new repositories, modern workrooms and research rooms for categorizing and preparation of the records. From 1996, the City Archives welcomes visitors interested in the local history of Tatabánya in this new environment with its continuously increasing records, special library as well as temporary exhibitions. The earliest records are those letters concerning the 18th century settlements. The most important body of the records is the municipality documents and especially those records concerning the construction of the city buildings. The records concerning the mining industry, the photo collection and the continuously increasing collection of personal fonds are also significant documents of the Archives. (For more information about the records of the Archives please consult with the collection of fond, which is also available online). The Archives owns a digital family tree program, which is unique in the country. Furthermore, the Archives usually organizes local temporary exhibitions and conferences.