This cluster of seven villages marks the site where, in the mid-19C, a sect of German Pietists founded one of the largest and longest-lasting communal enclaves in America. Believers in the Church of the True Inspiration founded Amana here in 1855. Today about one-third of the 1,800 residents of the villages still belong to the church. Architecture ranges from simple 19C brick, stone and frame structures to modern split-levels. More than 70 shops, a dozen restaurants and bed-and-breakfast inns fuel a brisk tourist trade.