The southern part of Gunungsitoli holds the oldest surviving buildings on Nias: missionary houses and a cemetery dating back more than a century, relics of the German Rhenish Mission that began arriving in the 1860s. The missionaries were the first outsiders to document Nias culture systematically — their records and the objects they collected became the foundation of the Museum Pusaka Nias collection.
Walking this area is a quiet counterpoint to the rebuilt city centre. The Jemaat Petrus Ombolata Church is one of the historic sites still standing. The city government has plans to develop the missionary buildings as a heritage and religious tourism precinct, though work is still in early stages. Come on a Sunday and you will hear congregations singing in multiple churches along the same street — Protestantism came to Nias with the missionaries and has never left, with about 80 percent of the island now Christian.