Skip to content
History–Tours
17081708–1710 · Meissen

Meissen and the first European porcelain

The Albrechtsburg castle and Meissen Cathedral on their rocky hill above the River Elbe
Photo: Rolf Kranz. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kept under guard by Augustus the Strong, the young alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, working with the scholar Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, produced Europe's first true hard-paste porcelain in Dresden around 1708. In 1710 the elector set up a royal manufactory inside Meissen's Albrechtsburg castle to guard the secret. It ended China's monopoly, and the Meissen works is still producing today.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Albrechtsburg, MeissenThe late-Gothic castle above the Elbe that housed the secret manufactory until 1863.Map ↗
  2. Site 2: Meissen Porcelain Manufactory and museumDemonstration workshops and the factory's historic collection.Map ↗
  3. Site 3: Dresden Porcelain Collection, ZwingerAugustus's Chinese, Japanese and early Meissen pieces.Map ↗

Guides who take you there

History-only · order never for sale
We haven't found an independent history guide for this yet. Guide here? Tell us about your tours.

Also in Dresden

More from the Renaissance & Early Modern

Read more: reference. Summary written by History-Tours.com.