The monastery church, dedicated to St Verena, and the convent buildings are an important part of the Upper Swabian Baroque Route.

According to local tradition the monastery was founded under the name of Mönchroth in 1126 by Hemma von Wildenberg with active participation of Norbert of Xanten.

Even though the foundation date is confirmed by an entry in the annals of Altenmarkt Abbey, also a Premonstratensian monastery, the personal involvement of Norbert of Xanten cannot be definitely ascertained.

The first prior of the abbey was Burkhard sent by Norbert of Xanten from the mother house Prémontré near Laon in northern France together with twelve monks.

Burkhard's successor, abbot Ottino (1140–82), led the monastery, consisting by now of approximately 200 monks, to its first prosperous period and increased the number of filial institutions.

In a charter dated from 1179, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa declared himself Vogt of the abbey, laying the foundation for the later Imperial immediacy.

A Papal bull by Lucius III published the same year replaced the lost documents and assigned the foundation of the monastery to Hemma von Wildenberg and two of her male relatives.

Crop failures, fires, wars and an economic crisis lasting for decades accelerated the decline of the abbey until, in 1391, only three monks were left.

In Constance in 1425 an alliance was forged with most of the other Swabian abbots to defend the monasteries' rights against the intervention of noble family members of monks.

After the end of the war and a period of consolidation, Abbot Martin Erde (1672–1711) endeavored to re-establish religious discipline and learning among the clerics and also attempted to improve the economic situation of the monastery.

It was rebuilt between 1777 and 1786 and newly furnished since Abbot Mauritius Moritz had started with the demolishing of the older church against the wishes of the convent.

The architect Johann Baptist Laub had the eastern part of the church erected but the real reconstruction commenced only under Abbot Willebold Held (1782–89).

The monastery's possessions of thirteen villages and hamlets with a total of 2871 subjects were taken over by the Counts of Wartenberg in compensation for territories they had lost left of the river Rhine.