On the site of the Roman station of Veldidena, where the ancient Brenner road reaches the Inn valley floor, there already existed in the 5th–6th century a sanctuary in honour of St Lawrence. In the early Middle Ages a community of canons regular was established there, followed in 1138 by the Premonstratensians, invited by Bishop Reginbert of Bressanone. The abbey enjoyed notable development; in 1449 it obtained the use of pontifical insignia and was favoured by the ruling houses. Under the brief Bavarian rule it was suppressed (1807), but soon restored (1816). It governs 14 incorporated parishes. The church and convent, after various reconstructions and enlargements, were rebuilt in the Baroque period. The church, somewhat present work of Christoph Gump (1651–65), has an avant-corps by J. A. Gump (1716), very vigorous, with statues by M. Moll. The interior, Baroque in style, is the work of various artists (high altar by P. Huber); it preserves many canvases by A. Steidl. The convent was also renewed and rebuilt, to a design by Cr. Gump, by J. Appeller. Impressive are the façade, the vestibule, the imperial halls; the chapter house is Gothic but Baroque-ised; fine the Library. Notable are numerous tomb slabs from 1300 to late Gothic and Renaissance. Worth noting is the rotunda of St Bartholomew, first mentioned in 1275 but of Romanesque origin, a baptistery or ossuary (Karner), and the parish church of W., dating from 1140, completely rebuilt by Fr. Penz (1751–55) in Rococo style, with stuccowork by F. S. Feichtmaier (of Wessobrunn) and frescoes by M. Gunter (of Augsburg); it served as a model for many other churches in Tyrol.
WILTEN – Abbey buildings of W. in the Baroque remodelling (1690–96) by the architect Christoph Gumpf and the master J. Appeller; the church façade is by J. A. Gumpf (1716), son of the former.
Vienna 1848, passim; E. Tomek, *Kirchengeschichte Österreichs*, 2 vols., Innsbruck 1935–49.