diff --git a/python/core/auto_generated/qgsgml.sip.in b/python/core/auto_generated/qgsgml.sip.in
index b610e6158e54..75219c33d90e 100644
--- a/python/core/auto_generated/qgsgml.sip.in
+++ b/python/core/auto_generated/qgsgml.sip.in
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ request is finished
                      const QString &authcfg = QString() ) /PyName=getFeaturesUri/;
 %Docstring
 Does the Http GET request to the wfs server
-Supports only UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-1 XML encodings.
 
 :param uri: GML URL
 :param wkbType: wkbType to retrieve
@@ -58,7 +57,6 @@ Supports only UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-1 XML encodings.
     int getFeatures( const QByteArray &data, QgsWkbTypes::Type *wkbType, QgsRectangle *extent = 0 );
 %Docstring
 Read from GML data. Constructor uri param is ignored
-Supports only UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-1 XML encodings.
 %End
 
     QMap<QgsFeatureId, QgsFeature * > featuresMap() const;
diff --git a/src/core/qgsgml.cpp b/src/core/qgsgml.cpp
index 5c3fdacbd064..8f05a3191f7e 100644
--- a/src/core/qgsgml.cpp
+++ b/src/core/qgsgml.cpp
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@
 #include <QSet>
 #include <QSettings>
 #include <QUrl>
+#include <QTextCodec>
+#include <QRegularExpression>
 
 #include "ogr_api.h"
 
@@ -321,10 +323,7 @@ QgsGmlStreamingParser::QgsGmlStreamingParser( const QString &typeName,
     mTypeNameUTF8Len = strlen( mTypeNamePtr );
   }
 
-  mParser = XML_ParserCreateNS( nullptr, NS_SEPARATOR );
-  XML_SetUserData( mParser, this );
-  XML_SetElementHandler( mParser, QgsGmlStreamingParser::start, QgsGmlStreamingParser::end );
-  XML_SetCharacterDataHandler( mParser, QgsGmlStreamingParser::chars );
+  createParser();
 }
 
 static QString stripNS( const QString &string )
@@ -412,10 +411,7 @@ QgsGmlStreamingParser::QgsGmlStreamingParser( const QList<LayerProperties> &laye
 
   mEndian = QgsApplication::endian();
 
-  mParser = XML_ParserCreateNS( nullptr, NS_SEPARATOR );
-  XML_SetUserData( mParser, this );
-  XML_SetElementHandler( mParser, QgsGmlStreamingParser::start, QgsGmlStreamingParser::end );
-  XML_SetCharacterDataHandler( mParser, QgsGmlStreamingParser::chars );
+  createParser();
 }
 
 
@@ -444,11 +440,40 @@ bool QgsGmlStreamingParser::processData( const QByteArray &data, bool atEnd )
   return true;
 }
 
-bool QgsGmlStreamingParser::processData( const QByteArray &data, bool atEnd, QString &errorMsg )
+bool QgsGmlStreamingParser::processData( const QByteArray &pdata, bool atEnd, QString &errorMsg )
 {
-  if ( XML_Parse( mParser, data.data(), data.size(), atEnd ) == 0 )
+  QByteArray data = pdata;
+
+  if ( mCodec )
+  {
+    // convert data to UTF-8
+    QString strData = mCodec->toUnicode( pdata );
+    data = strData.toUtf8();
+  }
+
+  if ( XML_Parse( mParser, data, data.size(), atEnd ) == XML_STATUS_ERROR )
   {
     const XML_Error errorCode = XML_GetErrorCode( mParser );
+    if ( !mCodec && errorCode == XML_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ENCODING )
+    {
+      // Specified encoding is unknown, Expat only accepts UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1
+      // Try to get encoding string and convert data to utf-8
+      QRegularExpression reEncoding( QStringLiteral( "<?xml.*encoding=['\"]([^'\"]*)['\"].*?>" ),
+                                     QRegularExpression::CaseInsensitiveOption );
+      QRegularExpressionMatch match = reEncoding.match( pdata );
+      const QString encoding = match.hasMatch() ? match.captured( 1 ) : QString();
+      mCodec = !encoding.isEmpty() ? QTextCodec::codecForName( encoding.toLatin1() ) : nullptr;
+      if ( mCodec )
+      {
+        // recreate parser with UTF-8 encoding
+        XML_ParserFree( mParser );
+        mParser = nullptr;
+        createParser( QByteArrayLiteral( "UTF-8" ) );
+
+        return processData( data, atEnd, errorMsg );
+      }
+    }
+
     errorMsg = QObject::tr( "Error: %1 on line %2, column %3" )
                .arg( XML_ErrorString( errorCode ) )
                .arg( XML_GetCurrentLineNumber( mParser ) )
@@ -1561,3 +1586,13 @@ int QgsGmlStreamingParser::totalWKBFragmentSize() const
   }
   return result;
 }
+
+void QgsGmlStreamingParser::createParser( const QByteArray &encoding )
+{
+  Q_ASSERT( !mParser );
+
+  mParser = XML_ParserCreateNS( encoding.isEmpty() ? nullptr : encoding.data(), NS_SEPARATOR );
+  XML_SetUserData( mParser, this );
+  XML_SetElementHandler( mParser, QgsGmlStreamingParser::start, QgsGmlStreamingParser::end );
+  XML_SetCharacterDataHandler( mParser, QgsGmlStreamingParser::chars );
+}
diff --git a/src/core/qgsgml.h b/src/core/qgsgml.h
index 990f43546df6..0072e3242e79 100644
--- a/src/core/qgsgml.h
+++ b/src/core/qgsgml.h
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 #include <string>
 
 class QgsCoordinateReferenceSystem;
+class QTextCodec;
 
 #ifndef SIP_RUN
 
@@ -253,8 +254,11 @@ class CORE_EXPORT QgsGmlStreamingParser
     //! Safely (if empty) pop from mode stack
     ParseMode modeStackPop() { return mParseModeStack.isEmpty() ? None : mParseModeStack.pop(); }
 
+    //! create parser with specified encoding if any
+    void createParser( const QByteArray &encoding = QByteArray() );
+
     //! Expat parser
-    XML_Parser mParser;
+    XML_Parser mParser = nullptr;
 
     //! List of (feature, gml_id) pairs
     QVector<QgsGmlFeaturePtrGmlIdPair> mFeatureList;
@@ -344,6 +348,8 @@ class CORE_EXPORT QgsGmlStreamingParser
     std::string mGeometryString;
     //! Whether we found a unhandled geometry element
     bool mFoundUnhandledGeometryElement;
+    //! text codec used to read data with an expat unsupported encoding
+    QTextCodec *mCodec = nullptr;
 };
 
 #endif
@@ -368,7 +374,6 @@ class CORE_EXPORT QgsGml : public QObject
 
     /**
      * Does the Http GET request to the wfs server
-     *  Supports only UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-1 XML encodings.
      *  \param uri GML URL
      *  \param wkbType wkbType to retrieve
      *  \param extent retrieved extents
@@ -387,7 +392,6 @@ class CORE_EXPORT QgsGml : public QObject
 
     /**
      * Read from GML data. Constructor uri param is ignored
-     *  Supports only UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-1 XML encodings.
      */
     int getFeatures( const QByteArray &data, QgsWkbTypes::Type *wkbType, QgsRectangle *extent = nullptr );
 
diff --git a/tests/src/core/testqgsgml.cpp b/tests/src/core/testqgsgml.cpp
index 3f645df9104a..7f4ed989fccc 100644
--- a/tests/src/core/testqgsgml.cpp
+++ b/tests/src/core/testqgsgml.cpp
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #include "qgstest.h"
 #include <QUrl>
 #include <QTemporaryFile>
+#include <QTextCodec>
 
 //qgis includes...
 #include <qgsgeometry.h>
@@ -82,6 +83,9 @@ class TestQgsGML : public QObject
     void testThroughOGRGeometry_urn_EPSG_4326();
     void testAccents();
     void testSameTypeameAsGeomName();
+    void testUnknownEncoding_data();
+    void testUnknownEncoding();
+    void testUnhandledEncoding();
 };
 
 const QString data1( "<myns:FeatureCollection "
@@ -1273,5 +1277,104 @@ void TestQgsGML::testSameTypeameAsGeomName()
   delete features[0].first;
 }
 
+void TestQgsGML::testUnknownEncoding_data()
+{
+  QTest::addColumn<QString>( "xmlHeader" );
+  QTest::addColumn<QByteArray>( "encoding" );
+
+  QTest::newRow( "simple quote" ) << QStringLiteral( "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='ISO-8859-15'?>" ) << QByteArrayLiteral( "ISO-8859-15" );
+  QTest::newRow( "double quote" ) << QStringLiteral( "<?xml version='1.0' encoding=\"ISO-8859-15\"?>" ) << QByteArrayLiteral( "ISO-8859-15" );
+  QTest::newRow( "UTF-8" ) << QStringLiteral( "<?xml version='1.0' encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>" ) << QByteArrayLiteral( "UTF-8" );
+  QTest::newRow( "No header" ) << QString() << QByteArrayLiteral( "UTF-8" );
+}
+
+void TestQgsGML::testUnknownEncoding()
+{
+  QFETCH( QString, xmlHeader );
+  QFETCH( QByteArray, encoding );
+
+  QgsWkbTypes::Type wkbType;
+
+  QTextCodec *codec = QTextCodec::codecForName( encoding );
+
+  QByteArray data = codec->fromUnicode(
+                      QStringLiteral(
+                        "%1<myns:FeatureCollection "
+                        "xmlns:myns='http://myns' "
+                        "xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' "
+                        "xmlns:gml='http://www.opengis.net/gml'>"
+                        "<gml:boundedBy><gml:null>unknown</gml:null></gml:boundedBy>"
+                        "<gml:featureMember>"
+                        "<myns:mytypename fid='mytypename.1'>"
+                        "<myns:strfield>price: 10€</myns:strfield>"
+                        "<myns:mygeom>"
+                        "<gml:Point srsName='http://www.opengis.net/gml/srs/epsg.xml#27700'>"
+                        "<gml:coordinates decimal='.' cs=',' ts=' '>10,20</gml:coordinates>"
+                        "</gml:Point>"
+                        "</myns:mygeom>"
+                        "</myns:mytypename>"
+                        "</gml:featureMember>"
+                        "</myns:FeatureCollection>" ).arg( xmlHeader ) );
+
+  QgsFields fields;
+  fields.append( QgsField( QStringLiteral( "strfield" ), QVariant::String, QStringLiteral( "string" ) ) );
+
+  {
+    QgsGml gmlParser( QStringLiteral( "mytypename" ), QStringLiteral( "mygeom" ), fields );
+    QCOMPARE( gmlParser.getFeatures( data, &wkbType ), 0 );
+    QMap<QgsFeatureId, QgsFeature * > featureMaps = gmlParser.featuresMap();
+    QCOMPARE( featureMaps.size(), 1 );
+    QVERIFY( featureMaps.constFind( 0 ) != featureMaps.constEnd() );
+    QCOMPARE( featureMaps[ 0 ]->attributes().size(), 1 );
+    QCOMPARE( featureMaps[0]->attribute( QStringLiteral( "strfield" ) ).toString(), QString( "price: 10€" ) );
+    delete featureMaps[ 0 ];
+  }
+
+  {
+    QgsGmlStreamingParser gmlParser( QStringLiteral( "mytypename" ), QStringLiteral( "mygeom" ), fields );
+    QCOMPARE( gmlParser.processData( data.mid( 0, data.size() / 2 ), false ), true );
+    QCOMPARE( gmlParser.getAndStealReadyFeatures().size(), 0 );
+    QCOMPARE( gmlParser.processData( data.mid( data.size() / 2 ), true ), true );
+    QCOMPARE( gmlParser.isException(), false );
+    QVector<QgsGmlStreamingParser::QgsGmlFeaturePtrGmlIdPair> features = gmlParser.getAndStealReadyFeatures();
+    QCOMPARE( features.size(), 1 );
+    QCOMPARE( features[ 0 ].first->attributes().size(), 1 );
+    QCOMPARE( features[ 0 ].first->attribute( QStringLiteral( "strfield" ) ).toString(), QString( "price: 10€" ) );
+    delete features[0].first;
+  }
+}
+
+void TestQgsGML::testUnhandledEncoding()
+{
+  QgsWkbTypes::Type wkbType;
+
+  QString data = QStringLiteral(
+                   "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='my-unexisting-encoding'?>"
+                   "<myns:FeatureCollection "
+                   "xmlns:myns='http://myns' "
+                   "xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' "
+                   "xmlns:gml='http://www.opengis.net/gml'>"
+                   "<gml:boundedBy><gml:null>unknown</gml:null></gml:boundedBy>"
+                   "<gml:featureMember>"
+                   "<myns:mytypename fid='mytypename.1'>"
+                   "<myns:strfield>price: 10€</myns:strfield>"
+                   "<myns:mygeom>"
+                   "<gml:Point srsName='http://www.opengis.net/gml/srs/epsg.xml#27700'>"
+                   "<gml:coordinates decimal='.' cs=',' ts=' '>10,20</gml:coordinates>"
+                   "</gml:Point>"
+                   "</myns:mygeom>"
+                   "</myns:mytypename>"
+                   "</gml:featureMember>"
+                   "</myns:FeatureCollection>" );
+
+  QgsFields fields;
+  fields.append( QgsField( QStringLiteral( "strfield" ), QVariant::String, QStringLiteral( "string" ) ) );
+
+  QgsGml gmlParser( QStringLiteral( "mytypename" ), QStringLiteral( "mygeom" ), fields );
+  QCOMPARE( gmlParser.getFeatures( data.toUtf8(), &wkbType ), 0 );
+  QMap<QgsFeatureId, QgsFeature * > featureMaps = gmlParser.featuresMap();
+  QCOMPARE( featureMaps.size(), 0 );
+}
+
 QGSTEST_MAIN( TestQgsGML )
 #include "testqgsgml.moc"