diff --git a/typo3/sysext/fluid/Tests/Functional/ViewHelpers/Link/TypolinkViewHelperTest.php b/typo3/sysext/fluid/Tests/Functional/ViewHelpers/Link/TypolinkViewHelperTest.php
index 45661d3236d8..232f06255b3d 100644
--- a/typo3/sysext/fluid/Tests/Functional/ViewHelpers/Link/TypolinkViewHelperTest.php
+++ b/typo3/sysext/fluid/Tests/Functional/ViewHelpers/Link/TypolinkViewHelperTest.php
@@ -17,7 +17,11 @@
 
 namespace TYPO3\CMS\Fluid\Tests\Functional\ViewHelpers\Link;
 
+use TYPO3\CMS\Core\Core\SystemEnvironmentBuilder;
 use TYPO3\CMS\Core\Database\ConnectionPool;
+use TYPO3\CMS\Core\Http\ServerRequest;
+use TYPO3\CMS\Core\Routing\PageArguments;
+use TYPO3\CMS\Core\Site\Entity\Site;
 use TYPO3\CMS\Core\Tests\Functional\SiteHandling\SiteBasedTestTrait;
 use TYPO3\CMS\Fluid\Core\Rendering\RenderingContextFactory;
 use TYPO3\TestingFramework\Core\Functional\Framework\Frontend\InternalRequest;
@@ -43,6 +47,23 @@ final class TypolinkViewHelperTest extends FunctionalTestCase
         ],
     ];
 
+    protected function setUp(): void
+    {
+        parent::setUp();
+        $request = new ServerRequest('http://localhost/');
+        $request = $request->withAttribute('applicationType', SystemEnvironmentBuilder::REQUESTTYPE_FE);
+        $request = $request->withAttribute('routing', new PageArguments(1, '0', []));
+        $request = $request->withAttribute('site', new Site(
+            'site',
+            1,
+            [
+                'base' => 'http://localhost/',
+                'languages' => [],
+            ]
+        ));
+        $GLOBALS['TYPO3_REQUEST'] = $request;
+    }
+
     public static function renderDataProvider(): array
     {
         return [
diff --git a/typo3/sysext/frontend/Classes/Typolink/ExternalUrlLinkBuilder.php b/typo3/sysext/frontend/Classes/Typolink/ExternalUrlLinkBuilder.php
index 4d1d8b9674fa..549b93efc157 100644
--- a/typo3/sysext/frontend/Classes/Typolink/ExternalUrlLinkBuilder.php
+++ b/typo3/sysext/frontend/Classes/Typolink/ExternalUrlLinkBuilder.php
@@ -27,6 +27,10 @@ class ExternalUrlLinkBuilder extends AbstractTypolinkBuilder
     public function build(array &$linkDetails, string $linkText, string $target, array $conf): LinkResultInterface
     {
         $url = $linkDetails['url'] ?? '';
+        // issue https://forge.typo3.org/issues/101083 forces absolute path URLs
+        // like `/path/some-file.png` to be handled as external URL, and that's
+        // why the URL is forced to contain a fully qualified domain name as well
+        $url = $this->forceAbsoluteUrl($url, $conf);
         $linkText = $this->encodeFallbackLinkTextIfLinkTextIsEmpty($linkText, $url);
         return (new LinkResult(LinkService::TYPE_URL, (string)$url))
             ->withLinkConfiguration($conf)