The Bezirk Imst is an administrative district (''

Bezirk The German language, German term (; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ; derived from , "circle") translated as "district" can refer to the following types of administrative divisions: * , a subdivision of a city in the sense of a borough (e ...

'') in

Tyrol Tyrol ( ; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps of Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, f ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. It borders the district Reutte in the north, as well as sharing a small border with

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

(

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

). It borders the district Innsbruck-Land in the east,

South Tyrol South Tyrol ( , ; ; ), officially the Autonomous Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol, is an autonomous administrative division, autonomous provinces of Italy, province in northern Italy. Together with Trentino, South Tyrol forms the autonomo ...

(

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

) in the south, and the district

Landeck Landeck () is a city in the Austrian state of Tyrol, the capital of the district of Landeck. Geography Landeck is located in the Tyrolean Oberland in the west of the state at an elevation of about . The town is situated in the valley of the Inn ...

in the west. Area of the district is , which makes it by area rank 4 of the districts of Tyrol, with a population of 57,734 (as of January 1, 2012) (Number 6 in Tyrol), and a population density of 33 persons per km². The administrative center of the district is Imst.

Geography

The district comprises a part of the upper

Inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...

valley, with its tributary valleys Ötztal, Pitztal, and Gurgltal, and the Mieming Plateau. The area is dominated by high alpine mountains. Mountain ranges include the

Stubai Alps The Stubai Alps (, ) is a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps of Europe. It derives its name from the Stubaital valley to its east and is located southwest of Innsbruck, Austria. Several peaks form the border between Austria and Italy. The ...

Ötztal Alps The Ötztal Alps (, ) are a mountain range in the Central Eastern Alps, in the Tyrol (state), State of Tyrol in western Austria and the South Tyrol, Province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. Geography The Ötztal Alps are arrayed at the head of ...

, and Mieminger Mountains. The District is around 35 km from west to east and 80 km from north to south. The Highest mountain is the Wildspitze (3.768 meters), the second highest mountain of Tyrol and the highest mountain of North Tyrol (all districts of Tyrol without the Lienz District). The Imst District is the southeast District of North Tyrol and includes one of the three passes from North to South Tyrol (Province Bolzano-Bozen, Italy), the Timmelsjoch, which is also the highest pass of Tyrol.

History

Through the Imst district there had always been an important route between Northern Italy and Germany. During the Roman empire, there was situated the most important route over the alps in Imst District: The Via Claudia Augusta. During the "Völkerwanderung" in the 4th and 5th century, mostly raetoromanic people lived there. Then in the 8th century bavarians came from the north and east and divided the area in 2 areas: the lower Inn valley eastwards of the Oetztal Valley and the Gurgltal Valley around Imst. Around 780 the Area came to the Franconian Empire, even though only in the Intall Valley there were German-speaking people. In the smaller valleys the people spoke raetoromanic. Around the year 1200 there were 2 courts: Imst, which the western parts belonged to and Silz, which included the eastern parts. 1269, the court Silz came to the County of Tyrol, while Imst belonged to it since the 12th century. Since that, the whole Imst district belonged to Tyrol.

Administrative divisions

The

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of the district: * Arzl im Pitztal (2,987) * Haiming (4,458) * Imst (9,523) * Imsterberg (747) * Jerzens (1,029) *

Karres Karres is a municipality and a village in the district of Imst in Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Aus ...

(614) * Karrösten (684) * Längenfeld (4,326) * Mieming (3,458) * Mils bei Imst (548) * Mötz (1,242) * Nassereith (2,065) * Obsteig (1,189) * Oetz (2,315) * Rietz (2,126) * Roppen (1,664) * Sankt Leonhard im Pitztal (1,466) * Sautens (1,427) * Silz (2,555) *

Sölden Sölden () is a municipality in the Ötztal valley of Tyrol, Austria. Geography At c. , it is the largest municipality in the country. The population of 3,449 (as of 2003) is outnumbered by tourists, of which 15,000 can be accommodated. Wit ...

(4,252) * Stams (1,340) * Tarrenz (2,650) * Umhausen (3,100) * Wenns (1,969) {{Authority control Districts of Tyrol (federal state)