Germany Guide
Saxony
The Albrechtsburg
Opening time: Daily: March– Oct 10am–6pm; Nov– Feb 10am–5pm
Price: €5, combination ticket with Dom €6
Atop the Burgberg is where Meissen made its debut a thousand years ago as Heinrich I's "Misni" castle on a defensive perch above the Elbe. As good a reason to ascend is for a river view from a terrace beside the Dom, or over the Altstadt from several cafés. The current castle, the Albrechstburg, Germany's first residential palace, is a late fifteenth-century replacement that dithers between stronghold and palace – slab sides that rise sheer from the rock outcrop seem at odds with prestige windows like drawn theatrical curtains. It was commissioned as a symbol of Saxon power by two prince electors of the House of Wettin, Ernst and Albrecht. Unfortunately, the duo squabbled, work halted and by the time the palace was finished in 1520, the court had decamped to Dresden. Indeed, it was largely abandoned for two centuries until the ubiquitous Augustus the Strong installed within it Europe's first porcelain manufacturer in 1710. And what a factory: at the front architect Arnold von Westfalen added a French-styled octagonal Renaissance tower embedded with Old Testament imagery. The staircase within is a highlight of an interior also notable for eccentric stellar vaulting like a Cubist's take on Gothic. Decor in the hall-like rooms is a product of a nineteenth-century revamp after the china factory moved to its current premises in 1864. It's a typically over enthusiastic interpretation of medieval roots, with murals of the Wettin rulers seemingly lifted from a Boy's Own adventure – all good fun.