The monastery was founded in 1341 by the benefactresses Katharina Zollner and Kunigunde Hubwann, along with Friedrich Zollner, supported by Nuremberg's bailiff Konrad Groß. Prince-Bishop Leopold II von Egloffstein had already confirmed the foundation in 1340. Eight nuns from the Nuremberg Poor Clares' convent formed the foundation of the new monastery, joined by the benefactresses and other relatives. Katharina Zollner, only seventeen years old, became abbess in 1342. In the Middle Ages, the monastery attracted numerous noble women from Franconia and gained great significance. During the Hussite Wars in 1430, the sisters had to leave the enclosure for the first time and fled to Nuremberg. Upon their return, they adopted stricter observance. The nuns of the monastery also documented events of the Peasants' War and the Schmalkaldic War in the region.
The foundation stone for the monastery buildings was laid in 1341, the construction of the monastery church began in 1342, and the cloister was completed by the end of 1343. The first monastery church was finished in 1346, but the building collapsed in a storm in 1373. The rebuilt church was consecrated in 1379. The monastery buildings, including the cloister, were located west of the church and comprised a burial chapel and a sisters' choir with its own altar. In the 15th century, the monastery had a dormitory, a chapter house, an infirmary, and a brewery. A tracery from the cloister, now exhibited in the Historical Museum Bamberg, testifies to the institution's prosperity. Eight altarpieces depicting the life of Saint Clare of Assisi, created around 1460, are housed in the Bamberg State Gallery. Four choral books from around 1500 are preserved in the Bamberg State Library.
In the course of secularization, the monastery was dissolved in 1803, and its property was auctioned off. The sisters left the monastery the day after the Feast of Saint Clare. From 1805, the monastery building served as a barracks. After renovations and extensions in 1868 and 1874, the complex burned down in 1876. Rental apartments were set up in the remaining parts. The church was used as a hay and straw magazine and was demolished in 1939. Only the former servants' house of the monastery has been preserved.