Cloister: The cloister is the core of any monastery complex, and the most important rooms are arranged around it. It served as a covered walk and procession area, for meditation and as a kind of common area. The cloister which exists today, which had a predecessor from the years 1281 - 1305, was built toward the end of the 15th century, and the well house was erected before 1511/12. The Bebenhausen cloister is one of the most important and best-preserved late gothic complexes of this type in southwestern Germany. Even today it is still possible to imagine how it looked when candles were placed in all the colored cloister windows on Christmas Eve.
In 1532-50 the new monastery guesthouse was built, which was later to serve the Württemberg kings as a hunting palace.
In 1535 Duke Ulrich von Württemberg had the monastery closed in the course of the Reformation. A small convent returned in the interim period, but was also irrevocably disbanded in 1648.
Duke Christoph von Württemberg established one of the state's four higher monastery schools in the former monastery at Bebenhausen in 1556. This was closed in 1806 and combined with the existing school at Maulbronn.
From 1947 to 1952 the former monastery was used as the seat of the "Landtag" (state parliament) of Württemberg-Hohenzollern. The representatives not only met in the rooms, they also lived there.
Since 1975 the entire complex is classified as a historical monument in order to preserve the location of the monastery and its furnishings.