Imst


Imst is a town in the Austrian federal state of Tyrol. It lies on the River Inn in western Tyrol, some west of Innsbruck and at an altitude of above sea level. With a current population of 10,504, Imst is the administrative centre of Imst District.

History

Licensed since 1282 to hold a regular market.
Until 1918, the town was part of the Austrian monarchy, head of the district of the same name, one of the 21 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in the Tyrol province.
Imst received full town rights in 1898.

Schemenlaufen

Every four years Imst hosts their Fasnacht, or carnival before Lent. This carnival is listed by UNESCO as one of their UNESCO [Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists|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 refrigerated luge track was completed at Imst. 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 FIL [World Luge Championships 1963|1963] and FIL World Luge [Championships 1978|1978] and it hosted the FIL European Luge Championships in FIL [European Luge Championships 1956|1956], 1971, and 1974.

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.

Sons and daughters of the town