diff --git a/src/core/qgstessellator.cpp b/src/core/qgstessellator.cpp
index 15fe52c6fccf..0becca04f327 100644
--- a/src/core/qgstessellator.cpp
+++ b/src/core/qgstessellator.cpp
@@ -423,6 +423,11 @@ void QgsTessellator::addPolygon( const QgsPolygon &polygon, float extrusionHeigh
       // Assuming that the coordinates should be in a projected CRS, we should be able
       // to simplify geometries that may cause problems and avoid possible crashes
       QgsGeometry polygonSimplified = QgsGeometry( polygonNew->clone() ).simplify( 0.001 );
+      if ( polygonSimplified.isNull() )
+      {
+        QgsMessageLog::logMessage( QObject::tr( "geometry simplification failed - skipping" ), QObject::tr( "3D" ) );
+        return;
+      }
       const QgsPolygon *polygonSimplifiedData = qgsgeometry_cast<const QgsPolygon *>( polygonSimplified.constGet() );
       if ( _minimum_distance_between_coordinates( *polygonSimplifiedData ) < 0.001 )
       {
diff --git a/tests/src/3d/testqgstessellator.cpp b/tests/src/3d/testqgstessellator.cpp
index 651dc459b538..0aebb19724fb 100644
--- a/tests/src/3d/testqgstessellator.cpp
+++ b/tests/src/3d/testqgstessellator.cpp
@@ -134,6 +134,7 @@ class TestQgsTessellator : public QObject
     void testBadCoordinates();
     void testIssue17745();
     void testCrashSelfIntersection();
+    void testCrashEmptyPolygon();
 
   private:
 };
@@ -335,6 +336,18 @@ void TestQgsTessellator::testCrashSelfIntersection()
   t.addPolygon( p, 0 );   // must not crash - that's all we test here
 }
 
+void TestQgsTessellator::testCrashEmptyPolygon()
+{
+  // this is a polygon that goes through GEOS simplification which throws an exception (and produces null geometry)
+
+  QgsTessellator t( 0, 0, true );
+  QgsPolygon p;
+  bool resWktRead = p.fromWkt( "PolygonZ ((0 0 0, 0 0 0, 0 0 0))" );
+  QVERIFY( resWktRead );
+
+  t.addPolygon( p, 0 );  // must not crash - that's all we test here
+}
+
 
 QGSTEST_MAIN( TestQgsTessellator )
 #include "testqgstessellator.moc"