The fonds has been linked to the archive since its inception. In the time of the Republic, one part of the fonds was stored in the Rector's Palace, and the most valuable documents were stored in the treasury of the Dubrovnik Cathedral. After the fall of the Republic, during the Austrian administration in the first half of the 19th century, Austrian authorities had the most important documents taken to the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna. After the end of World War II, those documents were restored to Dubrovnik. By a state decree of 1891, a part of the collection that had not been taken to Vienna was merged with other archival material and the archive then became available to researchers. The archive in the Rector's Palace has been functioning as an independent institution since 1920, and it was dislocated to the Sponza Palace in 1952, where it is still located today.