Lorch Monastery stands on antique ground. To the North-East of the monastery the Upper Germanic "Limes" (defense wall along the edge of the empire) once came from North and turned at a right angle toward the East, forming the so-called "Limes knee". Here the Upper Germanic wall and trench met the Rhaetian Limes, which consisted of a wall. The Lorch Fort (Kastell) within the city limits today lay at the border of the Roman Empire and its two provinces Germania and Rhaetia. Today the remains of Roman rule can still be found in Lorch.
The early Hohenstaufens, who settled in the upper Rems river valley around the middle of the 11th century, raised the Lorch Parish Church (Pfarrkirche) to the Cathedral (Stiftskirche) and established their first tomb here. Around 1140 the Hohenstaufens buried here were transferred to the new tomb in the monastery. The convent, which originally owned a large number of prebends (part of cathedral revenues paid as a clergyman's salary), existed until the middle of the 14th century in addition to the monastery.
The Romanesque Parish Church or Cathedral is no longer visible in the building today, as it was largely rebuilt in the Late Gothic style after a fire in 1474. Of note in the interior are various tombs, e.g. of the monastery administrator Theodorus Seefrid (1614-1684), the pulpit with its late Gothic chip carvings and the choir from 1728 with its balustrade images.
Numerous traces of the mighty Hohenstaufen dynasty, which was one of the most influential families of the Middle Ages, can still be found in its ancestral homeland between Lorch, Dischingen, Brenz and Geislingen. The important buildings on the road of the Hohenstaufens include the "Wäscherschloss" near Büren. The Hohenstaufen castle, built around 1200 and expanded primarily in the 17th century, houses a museum of local history and culture (Heimatmuseum) and a Hohenstaufen memorial today.
Hohenstaufen Castle, founded before 1079 by Duke Friedrich von Schwaben, is a typical nobleman's castle from that age built near two main roads of the Rems and Fils river valleys as a representative sovereign seat and intended to symbolize the mighty position of the Hohenstaufens. After the castle was burned down in the Peasants' War in 1525, visitors today can marvel at the castle remains, enjoy the view from Hohenstaufen Mountain and inform themselves on the history of the Hohenstaufens in the documentation room.