The interruption was initially due to financial problems, as Louis the Bavarian, an opponent of the Pope, was in power from 1314 to 1347, who revoked the Habsburg protection over Salem and thus terminated the legal security of many estates.

The construction period of around 150 years is nevertheless quite short in comparison, as many Gothic church buildings remained incomplete for a long time or, like Ulm Minster, were only completed in the Gothic-inspired 19th century.

Abbot Jodokus Senner took advantage of the Council of Constance, which had begun in 1414, and invited the Archbishop of Salzburg Eberhard III, who was present there, to consecrate the church.

The west front is surmounted by a high triangular harp gable, the basic shape of which, an equilateral triangle, could be understood as a worship of the Trinity in medieval numerical mysticism.

The tracery lattice in front of the gable wall with staggered two-lane lancets, which are connected horizontally by cloverleaf shapes, was probably also modeled on Strasbourg.

In accordance with the rules of the Cistercian order, which demanded simplicity and modesty, the minster was not given a church tower, but only a simple ridge turret to carry the bells.

The master builder Johann Caspar Bagnato, who had made a name for himself with the construction of Altshausen Castle, was commissioned to plan and build the tower in 1753, and it was completed in 1756.

The pillars, which lie directly between the choir and the ambulatory, have an octagonal cross-section.They belong to the oldest construction phase and document an orientation towards an older architectural style, such as that characteristic of the church of Lilienfeld Abbey.

Above the westernmost bay of the choir, the vaulting created an upper storey, where there was probably a small chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, all the angels and St. Michael the Archangel.

One of the reasons for the conversion was space problems: As early as 1708, the monastery chronicle Apiarium Salemitanum complained about the large crowds of lay people and the "immense concursus" in the church.

However, the urge to decorate could not always be stopped: The designers of Salem Minster no longer held back as much as they had in the early days of the order's art.

However, gilded keystones, painted vault ribs and colored elements in the otherwise colorless windows, as one would expect in Salem, were not welcomed by the order's leadership.

The furnishings thus always appeared to be a compromise between the spiritual obligation to renounce and the abbots' need for prestige, who ultimately had to compete with the prince-bishops not only on a religious but also on a political level.

Wooden sculptures and panel paintings can be linked to the Cistercian abbey insofar as they probably belonged to the former furnishings or can at least be proven to have been in Salem's possession at a later date.

According to the rules of the order, the large and numerous windows were only allowed to be painted with simple grisailles so as not to violate the commandments of simplicitas (simplicity) and humilitas (humility).

Glass craftsmen are documented in the rich Salem sources: "Item domum adiacentem, quam pictores et vitrorum artifices frequentius inhabitare consueverunt.

The sculptor Christoph Daniel Schenck [de] created a colossal high altar whose wood carvings (which were largely destroyed in the fire of 1697) reached almost 20 meters in height under the vault of the nave.

The artistic upheaval that brought Salem back into the role of pioneer among the southern German abbeys was due to Abbot Anselm's trips to Paris in 1765 and 1766.

The monastery appointed d'Ixnard's pupil Johann Joachim Scholl [de] as building director, who drew up an overall design and oversaw its implementation.

Wieland in particular is credited with the innovative design language of the altars, which chose simple, geometric elements such as pyramids, obelisks, triangular pediments and truncated columns instead of the curved lines of the late Baroque.

The art historian Georg Dehio praised its "pseudo-Dodoric stiff austerity", which fits in well with the "most genuine and truthful monastic style" of Cistercian architecture.

Some of the altar tables are still preserved from the Middle Ages; the structure and the sculptures were designed by Dirr and Wieland in the style of French classicism and made of light-colored alabaster (from the Klettgau region).

Two further monuments commemorate Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western European monasticism, and Bernard of Clairvaux, the saint of the order and great Cistercian missionary.

Finally, the donor monument is dedicated to the founders of the monastery: Baron Guntram von Adelsreute, who donated the building site for the monastery, King Conrad III, who made Salem an imperial abbey, and Pope Benedict XII, who gave the right to a Salem abbot for the first time forgave the use of the pontifical insignia in the coat of arms.

In the northern area there is the adoration of the Magi, an angel, a praying monk and numerous plant motifs that symbolize the Virgin Mary or, according to other interpretations, Christ.

The depiction of the bearded monk is usually interpreted as a (self-)portrait of the master craftsman, who in this case must have been a frater barbatus, a beard-wearing lay brother.

It originally stood as a monument on the grave of the great abbot John I Stantenat (1471–1494) and today stands on the north wall of the transept, where it is partially hidden by the gallery.

The series of figures was started by Christoph Schenck [de], completed in 1630 by Zacharias Binder and is one of the most important wood carvings of the early Baroque in the Lake Constance area.

A few decades later, Caspar Bruschius [de] reported in his Chronologia that Abbot Georgius Münch had a “quite handsome” organ built in 1441, the largest pipe of which was 28 feet long and four spans in circumference.

Hugo I von Werdenberg and the Lords of Bodman, Gremlich and Jungingen, who as donors contributed to the economic situation of the monastery, also rest here; However, the last graves of these noble families date from the early 17th century.