Meißen, Germany

Meißen is a town of about 28,000 residents on the Elbe River, located roughly 25 kilometers northwest of Dresden in eastern Germany. Meißen Castle, founded in 929, was the first German settlement established east of the Elbe, and the nearby Albrechtsburg Castle, completed around 1260, was the first residential castle built as such in Germany. The Meißen Porcelain Manufactory, founded in 1710, became Europe's first porcelain producer and introduced its blue crossed swords mark in 1720, one of the oldest trademarks still in use today. Meißen Cathedral, also dating to 1260, ranks among the finest late-Gothic churches in Saxony, and wine has been grown on the surrounding Elbe valley slopes since 1161.