Meissen

Lying picturesquely on the Elbe, the town of Meissen looks back on a thousand year history. It owes its beginning to the German King Heinrich I, who built a castle near the Elbe during a campaign against the Slavs in the year 929.

The town´s growth was interrupted by the war years of the 18th and 19 centuries, but 1834 marked a renewed upswing for the town. There was an increase in industrial production as the first steamships sailed in 1835, and in 1860 the city was connected to the railway network. Meissen developed into a major center for the ceramic industry in Saxony. The town's area grew by annexing land, especially on the right bank of the Elbe.

Meissen was preserved from serious damage during the two world wars. Between 1949 and 1989 the town of Meissen developed according to the ideological and financial framework of the GDR (East Germany). New residential buildings were built in the outer districts. Accordingly, the historic town centre lapsed.

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