Rules Of Service And Guilds

Each guild had its own rules, its patron saint, flag and chest where the guild documents, signet, money and guild table for convening meetings were kept. A general guild meeting was convened at the guild elder’s house on the feast day of the patron saint. The guild elder supervised products by checking their quality, ran the business and the books and granted master ranks. The guild took care of the elderly and sick, as well as of the widows and orphans of guild members.

The guilds also formed confraternities, religious associations. In 1668, the potters and furnace workers guild founded the oldest confraternity of Karlovac – the Confraternity of the Body of Christ, while the strong Boatmen guild founded the Confraternity of Saint Nicholas and erected an altar to its patron saint in the Church of the Holy Trinity. Today, some of the guilds’ heritage objects are kept in the Franciscan Monastery of Karlovac.