Imst (; Southern Bavarian: Imscht) is a town in the federal state of Tyrol. It lies on the Inn River in western Tyrol, some west of Innsbruck and at an altitude of above sea level. With a current population (2018) of 10,504, Imst is the administrative centre of Imst District.
History
Licensed since 1282 to hold a regular market.
Until 1918, the town (named earlier also
JMST) was part of the Austrian monarchy (Austria side after the compromise of 1867), head of the district of the same name, one of the 21
Bezirkshauptmannschaften in the Tyrol province.
[Die postalischen Abstempelungen auf den österreichischen Postwertzeichen-Ausgaben 1867, 1883 und 1890, Wilhelm KLEIN, 1967]
Imst received full town rights in 1898.[So late? Reference appreciated.]
Schemenlaufen
Every four years Imst hosts their Fasnacht, or carnival before
Lent.
This carnival is listed by
UNESCO as one of their Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
[ As part of Schemenlaufen pairs of men wear bells, tuned differently, while performing dances of jumps and bows. They are accompanied by masked characters imitating their dance.][
]
Luge track
In 1958, the first artificially refrigeration luge track was completed at Imst.[ 1964 Winter Olympic Games official report. p. 180. – accessed March 8, 2008] The track was long with 17 turns and a vertical drop of , giving the track an average grade of 12.48%.[ No turn names were given for the track.
]
It hosted the FIL World Luge Championships in 1963 and 1978[ FIL World Luge Championships men's single results since 1955 ] and it hosted the FIL European Luge Championships in 1956, 1971, and 1974.[ FIL European Luge Championships men's singles results since 1914 ]
SOS Children's Village
In 1949 Hermann Gmeiner founded the first SOS Children's Village in the Sonnberg district of Imst. The SOS-Kinderdörfer organization now runs over 450 such villages worldwide.
Climate
Sons and daughters of the town
-
Theodor von Hörmann (1840–1895), landscape painter
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Friedrich Heinrich Suso Denifle (1844–1905), church historian, Dominican, professor in Graz
-
Alfons Gorbach (1898–1972), politician (ÖVP), Federal Chancellor of Austria from 1961 to 1964
Notes and references
External links
