The abbey over time developed into a complex consisting of a large church and three ranges forming a rectangular enclosure to separate the nuns from the world.

The church was also used daily by the residents of Aalborg, though the nuns were separated from the congregation by iron gates around the choir.

Two years later Denmark became officially Lutheran and all religious houses and their income properties reverted to the crown.

King Christian gave the abbey to the city with the stipulation that the nuns be permitted to remain under the supervision of a local noble.

It was built of the red brick in neo-romanticism between 1877 and 1878 following drawings by architect Johannes Emil Gnudtzmann (1837–1922) and inaugurated on December 22, 1878.