Count Heinrich II of Lechsgmünd founded the monastery in the Kaibach Valley in 1135. It is the oldest settlement of the Cistercian Order in the Diocese of Augsburg. The foundation stone of the current church was laid in 1352. The monastery was dissolved in 1802, and from 1816 onwards, it was converted into a penitentiary.
Therefore, only the Imperial Hall, with its richly painted stucco decorations, and the Bavarian Prison Museum remain to be visited in the former monastery buildings.
The former monastery church, a mighty, cruciform, three-aisled basilica, represents architecturally the "epitome of Gothic in Bavarian Swabia." However, today the interior design is essentially Baroque.
