Casale di Malborghetto a Roma is a building that incorporated a quadrifrons arch from the 4th century AD, placed as a marker at the intersection between Via Flaminia and a connecting road between Veii and the Tiberina. The tetrapylon, with a rectangular plan, on four brick pillars, was crowned by an attic with a flat roof.
The presence of an honorary arch on Via Flaminia, dating back to the 4th century AD, has been linked to the descent of Constantine’s troops from the north precisely along this road to oppose those of Emperor Maxentius. Christian tradition holds that Constantine, camping at this place, saw the sign of the cross in the sky at sunset and that “during sleep he is warned to mark the celestial sign of God on the shields and to engage in battle.”
The next day, on 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 the two-faced arch in the Urbe near the Colosseum and perhaps in the Suburbium that of Malborghetto.
Over time the arch underwent numerous structural and functional transformations. In the 11th century it became a fortified church dedicated to the Virgin and in the 13th century it was inserted into the city walls of a castrum, called in the sources Burgus S. Nicolai de arcu Virginis.
Part of the defenses of the Papal State until the 15th century, it was destroyed during the battles between the Orsini and the Sacrofanesi. Transformed into a farmhouse and surrounded by the ruins of the Borgo, it then took the name Malborghetto or Borghettaccio.
In 1567 the building was restored by the Milanese apothecary (aromatarius) Costantino Petrasanta and later in the 18th century adapted into a Half-Post Station.
It retained this function until Pius VI, connecting Civita Castellana to the Via Cassia, suppressed postal service along the suburban stretch of Via Flaminia. Returning to being a simple farmhouse, it only became part of the State Property in 1982. After a careful restoration work, it hosts an Antiquarium with the findings related to Via Flaminia.
