diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 88e8ff5..bb92a5f 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-VERSION:=$(shell cat VERSION.txt)
+VERSION:=$(shell python -c 'from cascadenik import __version__ as v; print v')
 TARBALL=cascadenik-$(VERSION).tar.gz
 
 all: dist/$(TARBALL)
diff --git a/VERSION.txt b/VERSION.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 276cbf9..0000000
--- a/VERSION.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-2.3.0
diff --git a/cascadenik/__init__.py b/cascadenik/__init__.py
index 5bcb434..b0eba24 100644
--- a/cascadenik/__init__.py
+++ b/cascadenik/__init__.py
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 http://code.google.com/p/mapnik-utils/wiki/Cascadenik
 
 """
+__version__ = '2.3.0'
+
 from os import mkdir, chmod
 from os.path import isdir, realpath, expanduser, dirname, exists
 from urlparse import urlparse
@@ -30,8 +32,7 @@
 # compile function -> "compile"
 from .compile import compile, Directories
 
-# define Cascadenik version
-VERSION = '1.0.0'
+# define Cascadenik default cache directory
 CACHE_DIR = '~/.cascadenik'
 
 __all__ = ['load_map', 'compile', '_compile', 'style', 'stylesheet_declarations']
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 84d9d84..a2338c7 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@
 except ImportError:
     from distutils.core import setup
     HAS_SETUPTOOLS = False
-    
-VERSION = open('VERSION.txt', 'r').read().strip()
+
+from cascadenik import __version__ as VERSION
 
 options = dict(name='cascadenik',
         version = VERSION,