Arxiu Comarcal del Montsià

Arxiu Comarcal del Montsià is the regional archive of Amposta, responsible for preserving and sharing the documentary heritage of the entire Montsià county in southern Catalonia.

What is this place?

The Arxiu Comarcal del Montsià, commonly abbreviated as ACMO, belongs to the Xarxa d'Arxius Comarcals (XAC), Catalonia's network of county archives overseen by the regional Department of Culture. The archive was created through a co-management agreement signed by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Ajuntament d'Amposta (Amposta town council) and the Consell Comarcal del Montsià (county council). This arrangement was a first for Catalonia: ACMO was the first county archive in the XAC network to operate under a co-management model from the moment it opened, rather than adopting it years later. The building was inaugurated on 30 October 2010.

Its core mission is the preservation, conservation and dissemination of the county's documentary heritage, giving residents, researchers and other interested visitors genuine access to it. The holdings include records from the Generalitat de Catalunya's administration, local municipal governments, and institutions, associations and foundations active across the Montsià county.

Where is it located and what does the building look like?

The archive sits at Avinguda Generalitat 70-80 in Amposta, in one of the town's newer development areas. The building covers roughly 1,374 square metres of usable space across three floors. The ground floor is the public zone, housing a consultation room (reading room) for document research and a multipurpose room used for exhibitions and events.

What can visitors actually do here?

This is not a conventional tourist sight, but it does run regular activities open to the public:

• consulting documents on-site in the reading room,
• reprography services (copying and scanning of archival materials),
• access to a reference library and archival information services for researchers,
• exhibitions drawing on the archive's own collections,
• guided visits of the facility,
• training workshops on document management and archival practice,
• occasional open-house days (jornades de portes obertes), when the archive presents its work more broadly to the public.

What are the opening hours?

The schedule changes seasonally. In winter, the archive is open Monday to Friday in the morning (9:00 to 14:00), with additional afternoon hours on selected days. From 1 June to 30 September, a single summer schedule applies: mornings only, 8:00 to 15:00. Because afternoon slots and extra days can vary, it's worth calling ahead to confirm the current timetable before a visit.

How can you contact the archive?

The archive can be reached by phone at 977 707 923 (with an additional line at 677 183 259). Email contact is available at acmontsia@gencat.cat and acompany@amposta.cat — the first address is handled by the Generalitat, the second by the Ajuntament d'Amposta, reflecting the facility's shared management structure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the archive open to casual visitors, or only to researchers? Both. Researchers can use the reading room to consult documents, while the general public can tour the building, view temporary exhibitions, and take part in open-house days.

What makes this archive different from other county archives in Catalonia? ACMO was the first archive in the XAC network to be run under a co-management agreement from day one — the deal between the Generalitat, the town of Amposta and the county council was already in place at the 2010 inauguration, rather than added later.

What kind of documents are held here? The collections cover records from the Generalitat de Catalunya's administration, documentation from Montsià's local municipal governments, and materials from institutions, associations and foundations based in the county.

Do you need to book ahead to visit? For consulting specific documents in the reading room, it's advisable to contact the archive by phone or email in advance. Guided building tours and open-house days are usually run as separate scheduled events.