In Utrecht the first guilds emerged in the late thirteenth century. They quickly gained in influence and even acquired the right to elect the city council. One important duty of the Utrecht guilds was to guard the city wall. Each guild was responsible for a certain section of the wall between two towers. The Smeetoren (the tower of the smith’s guild) was one such tower. Of the 21 guilds in Utrecht, the smith’s guild was the wealthiest and most powerful. At the guild house it ran a care home for elderly members, named the Eloyen Gasthuis after their patron saint, Saint Eloy.

The guilds not only looked after their members during their life, but also after their death. A proper funeral was very important to people in those days. Guilds had their own funeral vaults and colleagues would carry the coffin, which was covered by a black pall and decorated with silver pins. The Centraal Museum possesses thirteen pall decorations of the porters’ and grain weighers’ guilds: they depict porters carrying sacks, grain measuring units and shovels. The role of the guilds changed after the Middle Ages. They lost their political influence and, with the Reformation, also their religious role. Their function as a trade organisation remained, but their closed character was increasingly criticised. Their attempt to fight off competition from fellow tradesmen from outside the city was especially frowned upon. The guilds were officially abolished at the start of the nineteenth century.