[1] The hill is the most prominent spur of the Steigerwald in the municipal area and with its steep eastern decline towards the Regnitz is significantly higher than the Domberg.

Under abbot Wolfram (d. 1123), appointed by Otto, the number of monks on the Michaelsberg reached its all-time high of 70 (from 20 under his predecessor).

However, from the 12th century on, the abbey's chroniclers tried to label Heinrich (and later also his wife Kunigunde) as the true founder(s), in order to reduce the influence of the bishop.

The abbey's financial status rested securely upon its great ownership of lands in the bishopric, eventually extending to 441 towns and villages.

[1] Abbot Anselm Geisendorfer came into confrontation with his bishop, Friedrich Karl von Schönborn and after additional conflict with his monks left the abbey in June 1740.

However, besides his work on the church (see below), Anselm was able to start a rebuilding of the Wirtschaftsgebäude, to which Balthasar Neumann contributed after 1742 and which his successor as abbot, Ludwig Dietz (died 1759), finished in 1744.

In terms of construction, Ludwig and his successor, Gallus Brockard (died 1799), mostly focused on the park created on the terraces around the abbey.

Attempts at reform by the final abbot, Cajetan Rost (died 1804), were cut short by the abbey's dissolution.

[2]: 8 By the time of the secularisation of Bavaria of 1802 the abbey still owned substantial property in Bamberg itself as well as estates in no fewer than 141 places in the surrounding area.

Even before that seizure, in September 1802, the Bavarian government followed a suggestion by Friedrich Adalbert Marcus, the head of the hospital Vereinigtes Katharinen- und Elisabethenspital (St. Katharina and St. Elisabeth), to transfer the institution to the hill from the town centre, preventing the abbey buildings from being demolished.

The Wirtschaftsgebäude and living quarters built during the Baroque period from massive sandstone surround the substantial two-spired church.

[2]: 2–3 The first church on the site, dedicated to Saint Michael, was built from about 1015 and was consecrated on 2 November 1021 by Eberhard, in the presence of the archbishops Aribo and Pilgrim, Emperor Heinrich and a large share of the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, both secular and ecclesial.

An earthquake on 3 January 1117 apparently only slightly damaged the church, but Bishop Otto had the whole building (and the monastery) torn down and rebuilt on a larger scale by one Richolf, in accordance with the architectural concepts of the Hirsau Reforms.

[2]: 4 After his death Bishop Otto was buried on 3 July 1139 in a tomb in the nave, in front of the altar dedicated to St. Michael.

In 1287/8 a polychrome sculpture was created as a tomb figure, showing Otto with pallium, mitre, staff and book.

Reconstruction of the nave followed, and its ceiling was painted with the Garden of Heaven; bells, organ and choir stalls were bought.

From 1696 Leonhard Dientzenhofer, under the instructions of abbot Christoph Ernst von Guttenberg, created a two-storey Baroque exterior façade.

A replica Holy Sepulchre in a side chapel that already reflects early Neoclassical style was also ordered by Anselm.

Georg Adam Reuß later made the pulpit in Rococo style, the final important piece of art added to the abbey church.

[1][2]: 8, 26 In 1833, the colorful painting of façade and statuary on the stair was removed and in 1837 on the orders of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, ten gravestones and memorials of the bishops of Bamberg from the 16th to the 18th century were removed from Bamberg Cathedral and set up in the Michaelskirche,[1][2]: 9  as described in a guidebook of 1912:[3] In 1886, Georg Dengler [de], Domvikar at Regensburg Cathedral developed a plan for "purifying" the interior of the church, but the replacement of the Baroque style elements with Romanesque Revival and the painting over of the botanical ceiling frescoes were prevented by popular protests and the intervention of Friedrich Schneider [de], Domkapitular at Mainz Cathedral.