The first monasteries were founded in the 4th century by Egyptian or Syrian Eremites who decided to live in a community. After adoption of the Benedictine Rule in the 9th century, a common monastic architecture was developed in the Franconian Empire: The building complex was mostly surrounded by a wall or fence that separated the nuns or monks from the outside world. Organisation and size depended on the relevant monastic ideal of the community. The spiritual centres of the complex were the monastery church as a place of liturgy and the cloister as a place of meditative silence, to which more convent buildings were connected: the dormitory, refectory (dining room) and the chapter house (assembly room). Together, they formed the area of the convent that was reserved for the members of the monastic community. A nun’s chancel within the monastery church, shielded from the views of the lays, was a specific feature of nun’s convents. Within the fenced area there were also farm buildings, gardens, guest houses, a hospital, the Abbot’s house and the portal. The St. Gall Monastery Plan from the 9th century is a preserved ideal plan of such a complex. Through donations and the possessions that new members brought with them, most monasteries possessed enormous amounts of property and land that was cultivated by enslaved (Hörige) people or farmers. From the 10th century, monasteries were usually under the protection and administration of Vögte (bailiffs) who often considered themselves as masters of the monasteries and influenced the distribution of the offices in many cases. The Rupertsberg Monastery could avoid this danger by the direct subordination to the Archbishop of Mainz, arranged for by Hildegard.

During the High Middle Ages, monasteries were no longer places of solitude, but of flourishing church-cultural life. With their libraries, schools and scriptoria, where books were copied, illuminated and bound, they were the most important centres for education, upbringing and art; others were significant places of mission (Magdeburg, Münster), locations on a route (pass, trade routes) or bastions of defence. In many places where monasteries were located outside of towns, settlements were founded. Apart from working in the kitchen or on the field monks spent – especially during the time before learning an independent handicraft – the time planned for work also with planning, constructing and decorating of the buildings and the furnishing of the monastery with paintings, liturgical garments and sacred vases made from precious metal or wood.

With the help of donations of property and possessions as well as income trough tithes, the monasteries soon developed into powerful manors with numerous servants and slaves, which gave the Abbots political and financial power. The guest houses were a place to stay for the powerful people of the Empire, and so secular matters were brought behind the walls of the monasteries. This and the precious church buildings as well as disregard for the working hours and meditation times for prayer and singing were, especially from the end of the 11th century, more and more a reason for criticism. When Hildegard started planning the foundation of her own monastery on the Rupertsberg around 1147, she also had to face the question of financing. When they entered the nun’s convent on the Disibodenberg, the families of the girls and women transferred property and possessions to the monastery, which Hildegard then claimed. Only in a certificate of 1158 was it written down that eight Hufen of land were transferred to the Rupertsberg. It was numerous sponsors, amongst them Margravine Richardis of Stade, Count Palatine Hermann, Count Ulrich of Are as well as her family, who brought property for her monastery and so secured its existence. As opposed to many other Benedictine monasteries, Hildegard did not acquire sovereign rights, slaves, monastic churches or tithes, but cultivated and administered the land alone or with the help of tenants. Her income was supplemented by donations from believers and beneficences for salvation.