Malborghetto farmhouse in Rome is a building that incorporated a 4th-century AD tetrapylon, positioned as a landmark at the crossroads between the Via Flaminia and a connecting road between Veii and the Tiberina. The tetrapylon, with a rectangular plan, built on four brick pillars, was crowned by a flat-roofed attic.
The presence of a triumphal arch on the Via Flaminia, dating back to the 4th century AD, is linked to Constantine’s troops descending from the north along this road to confront the forces of Emperor Maxentius. Christian tradition holds that Constantine, encamped here, saw the sign of the cross in the sky at sunset and “during sleep was warned to mark the heavenly sign of God on the shields and to wage battle.”
The next day, October 28, 312, Constantine defeated the rival’s army at Saxa Rubra, and Maxentius himself perished in the waters of the Tiber. Following this victory, in 315, the Roman Senate erected a two-faced arch in the Urbs near the Colosseum and possibly the Malborghetto one in the Suburbium.
Over time, the arch underwent numerous structural and functional transformations. In the 11th century, it became a fortified church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and in the 13th century was included within the walls of a castrum, known in sources as Burgus S. Nicolai de arcu Virginis.
Part of the defenses of the Papal States until the 15th century, it was destroyed during the clashes between the Orsini and the Sacrofani. Transformed into a farmhouse and surrounded by the ruins of the borough, it thereafter took the name Malborghetto or Borghettaccio.
In 1567 the building was restored by the Milanese apothecary (aromatarius) Costantino Petrasanta and then in the 18th century adapted as a Half-Post Station.
It retained this function until Pope Pius VI, connecting Civita Castellana to the Via Cassia, discontinued postal service along the suburban stretch of the Via Flaminia. Returning to being a simple farmhouse, it only became part of the State Property in 1982. After careful restoration work, it now hosts an Antiquarium with finds related to the Via Flaminia.
