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.
Gunzelin, Margrave of Meissen throne in the German royal election and his subsequent assassination, Bolesław occupied Meissen, but the new king, Henry II forced him to leave it and accept the March of Lusatia with the adjacent Milceni lands instead. Lusatia was thus detached from Meissen, which was bestowed on Gunzelin at Bolesław' demand. In Autumn 1004, Gunzelin took part in Henry's successful siege of Bautzen (Budusin), which had been occupied by the Poles in 1002. It is reported by Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg that the castle would have been razed if not for Gunzelin's insistence that the Poles be allowed to depart freely