The Provincial Historical Archive of Seville, managed by the Ministry of Culture, Historical Heritage and Sport, has successfully recovered two volumes of municipal public documentation that record local communications from the Sevillian municipality of La Rinconada, dated between 1927 and 1937. The manuscripts were discovered among documents donated to the Archive by the Rincón family, stemming from a collection gathered by Manuel Alfonso Rincón Palacios, a teacher and researcher interested in the history of Seville and its province.
Thanks to the archival management and technical work of the staff at the provincial institution, these documents are set to return to their original archive. The discovery occurred during routine phases of cleaning, identification, and archival description that the technical team systematically applies to all incoming documentation. While processing a batch from a private individual, archivists identified two books that did not belong to the private collection: an incoming communications register (1927-1930) and an outgoing communications register (1930-1932) related to local administration.
Patricia del Pozo, the Minister of Culture, Historical Heritage and Sport, highlighted that this action "demonstrates the indispensable and extraordinary, yet sometimes invisible, work of archive professionals, whose daily efforts extend far beyond mere custody." She also emphasised that "the technical qualifications of these professionals to analyse the origin, documentary series, and legality of the funds not only ensure the preservation of history but also provide legal protection for public heritage against dispersal or involuntary loss."
Del Pozo further noted that "commitment to good archival practices and inter-institutional collaboration ensures that these records of local history from the 1930s will again be available to both researchers and the public, marking a fundamental restitution for the protection of the rights of the inhabitants and municipal institutions of La Rinconada." Once the books were located, their status was documented in a technical report prepared for the processing of the deposit. This report specified that the two volumes should be excluded from the private collection, explicitly stating that both should be returned to the original municipal archive.
This restitution will take place in coordination with the Municipal Archive of La Rinconada, following a technical verification of the documents, and will be formalised through the corresponding delivery record.
