When it snows in Trás-os-Montes, the boys have fun making cake. They climb a steep slope. They form a snowball. And they push it effortlessly down the slope. And the ball picks up the snow it finds on the way. Little by little, it becomes a cake maker. And there it is, in the village square, to the admiration of those who pass by.

Thus was held the collection of the Museum of Vila Real. The small ball was made with nine Roman coins purchased from three children and with a Neolithic ax offered by a colleague.

Coins came from all over the province by the thousands: several pounds of follicles from Castro das Curvas, Cadaval, São Caetano and Paredes de Alvão; 750 Antoninians of Reguengo, 120 denarii from Mosteirô, 18 kilos of follicles from Vila Marim, 3840 Antoninians from Santulhão, 30 kilos of follicles from Émeres; and many other coins, whose chronological scope we marked between the 5th century BC and the 8th century AD The Numismatics collection was formed.

They gave us the ares of Três Minas, gave us the estate of the tapirs of Alvão and Castelo do Pontido, acquired the archeology of Vila Marim and Padre Placido, entrusted to us by the Borges and Taveira Family collections, as well as the roman columns of Vale de Telhas and Sabroso. Other pieces we were putting together. And we got the archeology collection.

These collections were the cause. The town hall was the agent. The museum is the effect

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