The Historic Archive of the Opera of Santa Croce conserves the documentation produced and collected by the institution which has managed and administered the complex of Santa Croce since the fourteenth century.

Although only indirect evidence survives from the early period of activity, and none of the documents conserved date to before the start of the sixteenth century, the archive offers a considerably rich and articulated picture of the functions carried out by the organisation over the course of the centuries. The role of intermediary between the directives of the Government and the demands of the religious and the citizens channelled the commitment of the Opera in numerous directions. It organised small and large works of maintenance, renovation and embellishment of the church and the convent, dealt with the granting of burial places, the assignment of areas to the religious companies and of accommodation to the friars. The Opera also orchestrated the major restorations and the new arrangements implemented over the last two centuries, which transformed Santa Croce into the “Pantheon of Italian glories” and gave the entire complex its present appearance.

The archive, which is the record of so much incessant activity, enables fascinating glimpses of the culture, the evolution of aesthetic taste, the historic-artistic sensitivity and the religious and civil participation which have involved the Franciscan complex, and makes it possible to trace among its papers the memory of the artists, religious, families and persons who have worked or lived there or who are remembered within it.

The Archive is divided into four sections: