diff --git a/src/lxml/tests/common_imports.py b/src/lxml/tests/common_imports.py
index 0a6cbbfa2..53780d991 100644
--- a/src/lxml/tests/common_imports.py
+++ b/src/lxml/tests/common_imports.py
@@ -69,6 +69,13 @@ def dummy_test_method(self):
         if expected_version > current_version:
             setattr(test_class, name, dummy_test_method)
 
+
+def needs_libxml(*version):
+    return unittest.skipIf(
+        etree.LIBXML_VERSION >= version,
+        "needs libxml2 >= %s.%s.%s" % (version + (0, 0, 0))[:3])
+
+
 import doctest
 
 try:
diff --git a/src/lxml/tests/test_htmlparser.py b/src/lxml/tests/test_htmlparser.py
index 9847d39ba..4460c1d42 100644
--- a/src/lxml/tests/test_htmlparser.py
+++ b/src/lxml/tests/test_htmlparser.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 import tempfile, os, os.path, sys
 
 from .common_imports import etree, html, BytesIO, fileInTestDir, _bytes, _str
-from .common_imports import SillyFileLike, HelperTestCase, write_to_file
+from .common_imports import SillyFileLike, HelperTestCase, write_to_file, needs_libxml
 
 try:
     unicode
@@ -53,7 +53,8 @@ def test_module_HTML_unicode(self):
         self.assertEqual(element.findtext('.//h1'),
                          _bytes("page á title").decode('utf8'))
 
-    def test_wide_unicode_xml(self):
+    @needs_libxml(2, 9, 5)  # not sure, at least 2.9.4 fails
+    def test_wide_unicode_html(self):
         if sys.maxunicode < 1114111:
             return  # skip test
         element = self.etree.HTML(_bytes(
diff --git a/src/lxml/tests/test_unicode.py b/src/lxml/tests/test_unicode.py
index 03ffcba40..287a0f0f7 100644
--- a/src/lxml/tests/test_unicode.py
+++ b/src/lxml/tests/test_unicode.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 import unittest
 import sys
 
-from .common_imports import StringIO, etree, HelperTestCase, _str, _bytes, _chr
+from .common_imports import StringIO, etree, HelperTestCase, _str, _bytes, _chr, needs_libxml
 
 try:
     unicode
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ def test_unicode_xml(self):
         tree = etree.XML('<p>%s</p>' % uni)
         self.assertEqual(uni, tree.text)
 
+    @needs_libxml(2, 9, 5)  # not sure, at least 2.9.4 fails
     def test_wide_unicode_xml(self):
         if sys.maxunicode < 1114111:
             return  # skip test