The Puijo tower is a 75 metre high TV tower in Kuopio, Eastern Finland. This tower has a revolving restaurant with 100 seats, which has worked flawlessly since its opening in 1963. It is the first tower with a revolving restaurant in the Nordic countries. The restaurant was an inspiration to Erkki Lindfors, the mayor of Tampere, who got an idea to build a similar one at home, resulting in Näsinneula tower, which opened in 1971. The current Puijo tower has been visited by over 5.5 million tourists.
The current tower is the third overall. When it was completed in 1963 the second was dismantled (it was built in 1900). The first tower was built in 1856. On the western side of the tower there are three ski jumping hills, which are very popular. A FIS Ski Jumping World Cup event is held yearly in Puijo along with many smaller events. The event is hosted by a local ski jumping club, Puijon Hiihtoseura. Most of the Puijo hills area is preserved as a nature park, but there are excellent hiking and skiing routes, which are popular with the inhabitants of Kuopio.
