This Cistercian convent was founded by Count Friedrich and Agnes of Truhendingen in Stachelberg, in the diocese of Eichstätt circa 1245. Bishop Friedrich of Eichstätt witnessed the foundation charter on August 14, 1245 which granted the convent freedom from advocacy. Egelolf of Lierheim may also be considered a co-founder of the community; he provided large gifts to the poorly-endowed convent (Krausen, 106). In 1249 pope Innocent IV confirmed the foundation, and in 1250 he took the convent into papal protection. In 1252 the convent was transferred to Zimmern, where Rudolf of Hürnheim-Rauhaus gave his property to the convent, with the pope's approval. After the convent moved to Zimmern it prospered.
Among the abbesses of the convent was a daughtter of Duke Ludwig von Teck named Uta (c. 1358/73).
In 1334 the convent consisted of eighty sisters and fifteen lay-brothers (needs further verification).
In 1249 pope Innocent IV confirmed the foundation, and in 1250 he took the convent into papal protection.
In 1263 the convent sent representatives to the lower Austrian convent of S. Bernhard near Horn.
Rudolf of Hürnheim-Rauhaus provided rich property for the convent in Zimmern.
The Counts of Oettingen served as protectors of the community since the fourteenth century.
The nuns were drawn from the local nobility and wealthy patrician families.
In addition to the rich lands that the convent held in Zimmern, it also held patronage rights in several parish churches in the surrounding area.
In 1428 there was a dispute between the convent and the heirs of Rudolf of Hürnheim-Rauhaus, who claimed the rights of advocacy and protectorate.
The convent church consisted of a three-naved structure and later became a protestant parish church.
The convent church has become a Protestant parish church. The rest of the buildings are still extant.
Archives for the community are found in the Hauptstaatsarchiv in München (Munich) as well as in the Princely Oettingen-Wallerstein'sches Archiv in Wallerstein and the Princely Oettingen-Spielberg'sches Archiv in Oettingen.
Die Klöster des Zisterzienserordens in Bayern
HUEMER, B. Verzeichnis der deutschen Cisterzienserinnenkloester. (StMBO 37, 1916).
In the fourteenth century the convent experienced a flourishing mysticism under the spiritual direction of Heinrich of Nördlingen. In 1525 the convent accepted the Protestant Reformation, and the nuns laid aside their habits and appointed a lutheran preacher. During the Peasant Uprising the convent suffered from plundering and destruction. In 1549 the buildings were returned to the Cistercian order. The abbot of Kaisheim reasserted his rights as father abbot and appointed the nun Apollonia Kraft as abbess. In 1557 she died: the last catholic abbess of Zimmern. In 1559 the convent was secularized.
Kunstdenkmaeler Bayerns 248.
