Originally a fort erected by the Counts of Tirolo in the 13th Century, it became a castle occupied by Countess Margherita Maultasch. It passed to Austrian dukes and then to Augustinian friars in 1406 who transformed the building into a monastery. Its turbulent past has seen take-overs in the peasant revolts in the 16th Century, damage by Napoleonic troops in the 17th Century, and suppression in 1806 by the Bavarian government allied with Napoleon. When Benedictine monks were expelled from the Muri monastery in Switzerland in 1845, they found a home here.
