Göss Abbey functioned for centuries as a centre for the Styrian aristocracy to have their daughters educated and if necessary accommodated, and entry was strictly limited to members of the nobility.

The nunnery, the last remaining imperial abbey on Habsburg lands, was dissolved in 1782 in the course of the rationalist reforms of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, and from 1786 served for a short time as the seat of the newly founded Bishopric of Leoben, of which the former abbey church, dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Andrew, was the cathedral.

In 1827 the premises were auctioned off and acquired by the wheelwrights' co-operative of Vordernberg, who were primarily interested in the forests of the former abbey's estates.

The famous Göss chasuble (Gößer Ornat), a valuable piece of Romanesque silk embroidery, is now preserved in the Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna.

A curiosity on display in the premises is a rare specimen of a reusable coffin of 1784 with an opening bottom that deposited the bodies inside into a common grave.