Antibes archives: eight months of work to save the papers

In the reading room of the Antibes municipal archives, almost nothing has changed — and that is the point: eight months of work went into what is invisible to the reader. In the summer of 2026 they finished replacing the air-handling system on which the preservation of the collections depends, and the behind-the-scenes of the construction was shown in a photo exhibition open until 10 September 2026.

🏛️ What was changed and why

The equipment responsible for the microclimate had been in service for about twenty years and had become outdated. Work ran from October 2025 and took eight months — during that whole time the archives continued to operate.

The head of the municipal archives, Jérôme Ruzer, explains the point of the new system: it allows “to maintain a controlled temperature and avoid fluctuations with the archive stores — otherwise when documents are moved they can suffer a shock and mould can develop”, Nice-Matin quotes him.

This is not about the comfort of visitors but about the physics of paper: a document moved from one room to another with a different climate receives a thermal shock — and after that it’s down to humidity.

🌡️ Three enemies of paper: heat, humidity and dust

The first parameter is temperature, but on its own it means little without the second.

Humidity in the archives is kept between 45–55%. “If it’s too humid, paper weakens and ink deteriorates; if the air is too dry, paper becomes brittle and risks tearing,” Ruzer describes this range. That is why stability is more important than a particular number on the thermometer.

The third enemy is dust, which accumulates where the air is still. That is why the project specifically addressed air mixing, and this had to be done “despite the mobile shelving”: dense rows of movable shelves hinder circulation. The new equipment was fitted with filters that prevent external pollutants from entering.

🏗️ How the work progressed

They began in October with a preparatory phase: some shelving was temporarily removed, and engineers searched for where the old cooling system even ran — it is critical for the archive building.

“The difficulty was in understanding what already exists and where the old services ran,” says the head of the archives. The new had to be planned on top of a network for which only incomplete information remained — a common story for buildings that have been maintained for decades.

📸 Exhibition: the construction nobody saw

To show the public this invisible work, the archives assembled an exhibition of photographs and objects tracing the stages of the construction. A separate storyline concerns around a dozen companies and specialities, some of them highly specialised: the store climate is handled not by general builders.

The exhibition is open until 10 September 2026. After it closes, its tablets will not be sent to storage: they will be used during European Heritage Days and on educational visits to explain how the archive building is organised.

🔎 What visitors can do here

The Antibes municipal archives are not a closed store. In the reading room administrative, genealogical and historical research is carried out; the archives run an educational service for schools and organisations, and a separate branch is oral archives, where personal testimony becomes a source just like a document.

The issue of preserving coastal heritage is not limited to paper: in Nice they are restoring paintings and the Opera’s torchières, and Antibes itself is best known for the villas of Cap d’Antibes, which have their own documented history.

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Photo: Magda Ehlers / Pexels