Inestimable and assorted archive material has been in un-interrupted safe-keeping in Piran since the year 1173, whereas the copies of the oldest documents reach even into the years 1036 and 1041 respectively. The collected material tells about the rich past of the town, its close and distant hinterland, the major part of Istria and of the role of Piran in the wider European context. The archive retains more than 1800 specimens of parchment notary documents (1173-1887), over 170 so called ducales or letters from the Doge of Venice (1263-1699), approximately 9000 Last Wills and Testaments, as well as other documents representing a rich source for historians, ethnologists, art historians, lawyers, linguists etc. Amongst the multitude of documents and codicils that should be especially cited there are the Statutes of the Municipality of Piran, of which the oldest from the year 1307, is preserved in original.