The Ecomuseum of the Royal Ironworks and Foundries of Calabria is an ACAI project (Calabrian Association for Industrial Archaeology, based in Bivongi) was born in 1982. The project has the purpose of research, study, preservation and promotion of cultural heritage of industrial archeology in Calabria, in particular, for what concerns the Stilaro Valley, called "the cradle of the early southern industrialization". The Ecomuseum is intervening for some years on the territory of Bivongi to recover and restore some facilities, including an ancient mouth of the mine, a hydroelectric power plant in 1913, two water mills, a former tannery (already Ferriera Fieramosca) and a apartment house adjacent to thermae. A section of the Museum of Industrial Archaeology and Material Culture, the first of its kind in southern Italy, is already active in the former Basilian monastery of San Giovanni Theresti, while, in collaboration with the City of Pazzano, is also under development a Museum of Culture Mining.