St. Andreas Fundgrube Mine / Weiße Erden Pit

Kaolin extracted in the Ore Mountains formed the basis for the invention of European hard-paste porcelain in 1708 by Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682-1719) and Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651-1708). The originally preserved Huthaus (administration and assembly building) of the Weiße Erden Pit represents the enormous importance of this site as a supplier of kaolin. For a period of some 150 years, the Weiße Erden Pit supplied the high-grade kaolin required for the manufacture of porcelain in Meissen. All the valuable products, from the first period of the world-famous porcelain manufactury in Meissen were created using kaolin extracted from this mine.