Imst District - History

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.