Birthplace of European porcelain — crossed swords on every piece since 1710
Meissen is a perfectly preserved Saxon hilltop town on the Elbe, crowned by a Gothic cathedral and Albrechtsburg castle, but its real fame is the porcelain factory that has operated continuously since 1710 — the first in Europe. Augustus the Strong had alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger imprisoned until he cracked the secret of Chinese porcelain; the result is still made here by hand, and the factory museum shows the entire process from raw kaolin to finished gilded tableware.
Meissen was a frontier fortress of the Holy Roman Empire from 929 CE, guarding the eastern marches against Slavic tribes. It became the seat of the Margraviate of Meissen and for centuries was the residence of Wettin rulers before Dresden eclipsed it. The Albrechtsburg, begun in 1471, is considered one of the earliest Renaissance secular buildings in Germany. When Augustus the Strong established the porcelain manufactory inside the castle in 1710, Meissen transformed from a faded medieval seat into an industrial pioneer — the manufactory moved to its current premises in 1863 but retains the s…