The Earls (German: Grafen) von Nellenburg recognized the importance of the geographical area as a transshipment of goods on the Rhine river, and the order to bypass the Rheinfall waterfalls, controlled by the Wörth Castle.

The monastery was founded by Eberhard von Nellenburg in 1049, on 22 November it was consecrated by Pope Leo IX, and in 1064 the construction works were completed.

In 1067 count Eberhard strengthened his rule in Schaffhausen, and received by Pope Alexander II comprehensive protection and sovereign rights for the monastery.

[1] In the so-called Investiture Controversy conflict between the Roman Catholic church in Rome and the secular power, the pope loyal Count Burkhard von Nellenburg, the son and heir of Eberhard, conformed in 1080 all of the rights of the monastery.

The monastery was directly subordinate to the Pope, and received the vast estate of the family, the free election of the abbot, and the mint money market as well as the town of Schaffhausen.

[1] The first extensions of the abbey included the east wing of the convent building with the chapter house of the monks on the ground floor, and a dormitory with latrines upstairs.

[1] Eberhard von Nellenburg also financed the monastery's church third central tower to the west, extended with a new chancel choir grown in the apex outdoor crypt, as a burial chamber, and a subsequent courtyard.

Abbot Ullrich initiated the construction of the cathedral tower, the present herb garden, the building of the hospital and the novitiate, as well as a loggia.

The ornately decorated semi-circular arched lunettes of the former upper chapel, are among the finest examples of Romanesque architectural sculpture in the monastery, and are on display in the museum.

The museum exhibited during the first decades in the fields of archeology, history and art, focusing primarily on craft-oriented and categories as chronologically structured tours.

[4] Its extensive permanent collections and temporary exhibitions,[5][6] the museum provides a wide variety of topics: Interdisciplinary special exhibitions stimulate discussion with current cultural and scientific themes, as well by the universality of the medieval monastery, the imposing cathedral, the idyllic herb garden and the largest freely accessible cloister of Switzerland.