Meissen Another popular tourist sight is the world-famous Meissen porcelain factory. From spring to autumn, several festivals take place in Meissen, such as the pottery market or the "Weinfest", which celebrates the wine harvest. Meissen wine is produced at the vineyards in the river valley ("Elbtal") around the town, part of the Saxonian wine region, one of the northernmost in Europe. Meissen is twinned with: Meissen Meissen (in German orthography: "Meißen", ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the
Meissen porcelain the dominant European porcelain factory, and the leader of stylistic innovation, until somewhat overtaken by the new styles introduced by the French Sèvres factory in the 1760s, but has remained a leading factory to the present day. Among the developments pioneered by Meissen are the small porcelain figure, and the introduction of European decorative styles to replace the imitation of Asian decoration of its earliest wares. Chinese porcelain had gradually developed over centuries, and by the seventeenth century both Chinese and Japanese export porcelain were imported to Europe on a large scale by the Dutch East India Company and its