Meissen 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 home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche. The "Große Kreisstadt" is the capital of the Meissen district. Meissen is sometimes known as the "cradle of Saxony". The city grew out of the early Slavic settlement of "Misni" inhabited by the Glomacze tribe and was founded as a German town by King Henry the Fowler in 929.
Vienna porcelain history of the manufactory is often divided by German writers into five periods. The first period, used by all sources, was under its founder and first director du Paquier, who was given a monopoly for 25 years. This is therefore known as the "Du Paquier period", and many sources talk of "Du Paquier porcelain" and the "Du Paquier factory", usually with a capital "D", although his actual name has a small "d". While Meissen and most later German factories were owned by the local ruler, and usually heavily funded, du Pacquier received only permission to manufacture, and many orders for