Gero, who owned a castle at Gernrode, decided to found a collegiate church and female (lay) convent (Stift) here, in cooperation with his son Siegfried.

A hiatus in construction followed Gero's death and is seen as the likely source of the shift in the church's axis (see map).

That same year, on Hathui's death, Adelheid, daughter of Emperor Otto II succeeded her as abbess.

[2]: 4 [1]: 92 Additions to the church in the 11th and 12th centuries include the west crypt (first mentioned in 1149), side galleries, the enlargement of the westwork (1127–1150) and the towers and the two-storey cloisters (1170).

[2]: 5, 8 Abbess Anna von Plauen (1532–1549) founded the first school and supported the convent's role in providing medical care.

In 1806, with the end of the Holy Roman Empire, the convent finally lost its Imperial status and immunity and was subsumed by the Duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg.

[2]: 10 In the late 1830s, interest in the church and convent resurfaced, with art historian Franz Theodor Kugler publishing a description in 1838 and Ludwig Puttrich [de] calling for its renovation in 1839.

[2]: 11 The central body of the church has a nave and two aisles, surrounded by the eastern transept and the westwork, which is sided by two towers.

These elements, typical of the Carolingian architecture, were paired by novelties anticipating the Romanesque style: as the alternation of pillars and columns (a hallmark of numerous later churches in Saxony), the thick walls, the semi-blind arcades in galleries on the nave (similar to a triforium).

The capitals of the columns show a variety of elements, with stylized leaves of acanthus and, in one case, human heads.

[2]: 29–30 The southern aisle houses a copy of the grave of Christ (a representation of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem), most likely dating to the period 1080 to 1130.

Parts of the outer decorations of the tomb were intentionally destroyed, but it is unclear whether this happened during the 12th-century reconstruction or in the final introduction of Reformation in 1616.