A 22-storey concrete cylinder rising 77 metres on the northern edge of the centre, the Romanița was the tallest building in Soviet Chisinau when it was completed in 1986. Designed by Oleg Vronsky, it is one of the most distinctive surviving examples of Soviet-modernist residential architecture: a single circular core with 168 apartments cantilevered around it like petals.
The interior is residential and not open to visitors, but the exterior is worth a 15-minute detour for anyone interested in late-Soviet architecture. The best photographs are from across Lev Tolstoi Street where the building's full silhouette stands clear of the surrounding nine-storey blocks. About 2 km from the centre; trolleybus 22 or a taxi.