The Luxembourg City Photothèque was opened in 1984. Its collections trace the history of the capital, and of the country as a whole.
In 2011, the collection began being archived electronically. Since then, a million photos have been scanned by hand. 250,000 have been indexed into a database. Every image recorded also displays the year the picture was taken, and the indexing system provides a more detailed description of the location or context in which it was taken, as well as of the work itself. It also provides information about the photographer and their origins and, lastly, details about the negative and applicable copyright. This indexing facilitates searches within the archives, making the Photothèque's contents more easily accessible to the public, who can purchase copies of the photos in paper or digital format.
Particular care is taken over the optimal conservation of our documents. For example, negatives are archived separately from paper documents in a climate-controlled room, ensuring the long-term preservation of this fragile material.
Albums may be consulted on site for free, for various kinds of research. However, visitors must pay if they want copies of the images.
