Albrechtsburg Castle

Our ship seen from the Castle

The Chinese had mastered the production of porcelain back in the 14th century, and porcelain had become a valuable export commodity in its trade with Europe. Meissen became the first European competitor in an odd way. King Albert the Strong of Saxony hired an alchemist to turn lead into gold. He failed, of course, but discovered instead how to turn clay into porcelain ("white gold"). That was really a coup because clay was cheaper than lead and porcelain was more valuable than gold. When Meissen porcelain came on the market in 1710, it was the first competitive European porcelain and a source of great wealth for the King. Although other European manufacturers soon appeared, by then Meissen was producing wares superior to the finest Chinese porcelain and dominated the European market. For more than 150 years the porcelain factory was in Albrechtsburg Castle. It moved to its current location in 1865.

Our group left the porcelain factory at 10:15 and walked a few blocks to the Markt Platz, the main square, surrounded by beautiful old buildings. The Rathaus (1478) is one of the oldest in Saxony. The Frauenkirche, also from the 15th century, features the world's first playable porcelain carillon, added in 1929 on the occasion of the city's 1,000 year jubilee.

Typical street Jane with friend

At this point (11:15) our group was given free time, but Jutta led Jane and me back to a dentist's office on Markt Platz. The dentist was waiting for us along with her technician and receptionist. She had my crown repaired in about 15 minutes (a permanent fix, not a temporary repair). The fee was 48 euros (about $65) that had to be paid in cash. I thought it was a real bargain. Then the three of us walked back to the ship and had lunch (only soup for me).
 

The "elevator" to the upper town

On getting off, the Castle and its Cathedral were slightly above us to the left, and to our right was a wide walk sloping gently toward the lower town. We met someone from our group who told us the Cathedral was temporarily closed because of a wedding so, thinking the wedding wouldn't last long, we walked to our right down the long sloping sidewalk. There were some nice panoramas over the rooftops of the town, but after a while we decided that we didn't want to descend so far as to have a long climb back to the Castle. So we turned back in that direction.


The original Saxons were a Germanic people, but Slavs spread into the area of present day Saxony beginning the early sixth century. The Germans finally gained firm control of the area along the Elbe in 929 and built a wooden fortress high on a rock above the Elbe river to secure it. That castle formed the nucleus of the town of Meissen. The wooden castle is said to have been the very first German castle. It was replaced by a stone castle in the 11th century. When the Margrave of Meissen became the Elector of Saxony in 1423, he and his successors became men of great importance and began construction of the present castle in 1471. It was the first German castle built as a residence, rather than as a military fortress.

The cathedral was built about the same time as the original castle (929) but, like the castle, was later replaced by a much larger one. Construction of the present cathedral (1260) predated that of the new castle by two centuries. We never got all the way inside the Cathedral. It was still closed so we decided to visit the Castle.

We spent about an hour going through the Castle. Most of the interior dates from after the porcelain factory moved out in 1865. The Albrechtsburg reopened in 1881 as a museum featuring large murals depicting historical events in the history of its dynasties. The museum was only recently modernized (2008-2011), and it was not clear what was original and what was new. Many of the rooms have vaulted ceilings; some of these are ornately decorated and others are not. The grand front room and the grand appellation hall are the most spectacular. There are also many displays of medieval works of art as well as beautiful porcelain items.


The Cathedral was still closed when we left the Castle. We went into the vestibule but we couldn't see much of the interior from there. We took the funicular-elevator down and were back on the ship about 4:00. We went to the port talk at 7:00 and dinner at 7:15.