Albrechtsburg Albertinian line. In 1710 King Augustus II the Strong established the "Royal-Polish and Electoral-Saxon Porcelain Manufactory" ("Königlich-Polnische und Kurfürstlich-Sächsische Porzellan-Manufaktur"), which was the first European hard-paste porcelain manufacture, at the castle under the supervision of Johann Friedrich Böttger. Meissen porcelain was produced at the Albrechtsburg until manufacturing moved to its present location in 1863. Albrechtsburg The Albrechtsburg is a Late Gothic castle that dominates the town centre of Meissen in the German state of Saxony. It stands on a hill above the river Elbe, adjacent to the Meissen Cathedral. In 929 King Henry I of Germany subdued the Slavic Glomacze
Soft-paste porcelain firing temperatures are lower compared with hard-paste porcelain, or, more likely, because the finished products actually are far softer than hard-paste, and early versions were much easier to scratch or break, as well as being prone to shatter when hot liquid was suddenly poured into them. The German Meissen porcelain had developed hard-paste porcelain by 1708, and later German factories usually managed to find the secret out from former Meissen employees, beginning with Vienna porcelain in 1718. The other European countries had much longer to wait, but most factories eventually switched from soft to hard-paste, having discovered both the secret