The monastery and the church were probably founded by the heir of Zwierzyniec – the knight Jaksa Gryfita, after his return from a crusade in 1162. The first church was consecrated in 1181. Today, we know that the Norbertine Sisters – the oldest female religious congregation in Poland – came to Zwierzyniec from Doksau near Prague between 1144 and 1165. It may have originally been a congregation of women and men, which split after a Tartar invasion in 1241, leaving the Romanesque church and monastery in ruins. The Tartars also destroyed a new single-nave Romanesque brick church, erected in the 13th century.
The oldest preserved 13th-century elements include the Romanesque portal in the porch under the tower, as well as the defensive walls and towers from the 14th century. The church burned down in the 16th century during the siege of Kraków. The complex was also slightly damaged during the Swedish Deluge and was flooded several times by the Vistula River. The monastery was used to store the weapons and cannons given to Tadeusz Kościuszko in 1794.
Today, the complex preserves the shape attained during an overhaul carried out between 1596 and 1626 by Giovanni Battista Trevano and Giovanni Petrini. The furnishings of the church date back to the 18th century. The rectangular nave is home to Baroque altars with a reliquary and a picture of Blessed Bronisława.
The Convent of the Norbertine Sisters is connected with many of Kraków’s legends and traditions. On Easter Monday, the monastery holds an indulgence, called the Emmaus. On the octave of Corpus Christi, a procession with the Lajkonik stops at the monastery. A procession of the Confraternity of the Passion of Christ heads to the monastery each year, welcomed by the Norbertine vicar. The monastery is associated with legends about Tartar attacks, the hermitage of Blessed Bronisława and the bell of the drowned.