History
Meissen is sometimes known as the "cradle of Saxony". The city grew out of the early Slavic settlement of Mis(s)ni, named for the small river Mis(s)na today Meis(s)abach (see Miesbach/Musbach/Mosbach), inhabited by the Slavic Glomacze tribe and was founded as a German town by King Henry the Fowler in 929. In 968, the Diocese of Meissen was founded, and Meissen became the episcopal see of a bishop. The Catholic bishopric was suppressed in 1581 after the diocese accepted the Protestant Reformation (1559), but re-created in 1921 with its seat first at Bautzen and now at the Katholische Hofkirche in Dresden. Meissen is the literal plural form of the modern english word "moss" - translating literally as mosses or simply as marsh. Hence Meissner or Meisner - one who works the marsh - porcelain maker.
The Margraviate of Meissen was founded in 968 as well, with the city as the capital of the Margraves of Meissen. A market town by 1000, Meissen passed to the Kingdom of Poland in 1018 under Boleslaw I the Brave, afterwards into hands of Emperor Conrad II in 1032 and the House of Wettin in 1089. The city was at the forefront of the Ostsiedlung, or intensive German settlement of the rural Slavic lands east of the Elbe, and its reception of city rights dates to 1332.
The construction of Meissen Cathedral was begun in 1260 on the same hill as the Albrechtsburg castle. The resulting lack of space led to the cathedral being one of the smallest cathedrals in Europe. The church is also known as being one of the most pure examples of Gothic architecture.
During World War II, a subcamp of Flossenbürg concentration camp was located in Meissen.
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