A service of the Conseil Général of the French Departement of Calvados, based in Caen. The archives of the French departements were established under a decree of 26 July 1796, and were initially in a section of the Abbey of Saint-Étienne, they were then transferred to tworooms on the first flor of the College du Mont. In 1877 they were transferred to a new building in the Prefectural building in Calvados, with a new annex being opened in 1932. There are more than 60 linear kilometres of archives, 608 kilometres of microfilms and 3 380 000 images, with fonds dating back to the Ancien Regime.