diff --git a/tests/template/invalid_constructs_test.php b/tests/template/invalid_constructs_test.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..08fb5d4289
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/template/invalid_constructs_test.php
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+<?php
+/**
+*
+* @package testing
+* @copyright (c) 2012 phpBB Group
+* @license http://opensource.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.php GNU General Public License v2
+*
+*/
+
+require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/template_test_case.php';
+
+class phpbb_template_template_test extends phpbb_template_template_test_case
+{
+	public function template_data()
+	{
+		return array(
+			array(
+				'Unknown tag',
+				'invalid/unknown_tag.html',
+				array(),
+				array(),
+				array(),
+				'invalid/output/unknown_tag.html',
+			),
+		);
+	}
+
+	/**
+	* @dataProvider template_data
+	*/
+	public function test_template($description, $file, $vars, $block_vars, $destroy, $expected)
+	{
+		$cache_file = $this->template->cachepath . str_replace('/', '.', $file) . '.php';
+
+		$this->assertFileNotExists($cache_file);
+
+		$expected = file_get_contents(dirname(__FILE__) . '/templates/' . $expected);
+		// apparently the template engine does not put
+		// the trailing newline into compiled templates
+		$expected = trim($expected);
+		$this->run_template($file, $vars, $block_vars, $destroy, $expected, $cache_file);
+	}
+}
diff --git a/tests/template/templates/invalid/output/unknown_tag.html b/tests/template/templates/invalid/output/unknown_tag.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1489e5e31a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/template/templates/invalid/output/unknown_tag.html
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+<!-- UNKNOWNTAG variable.html -->
diff --git a/tests/template/templates/invalid/unknown_tag.html b/tests/template/templates/invalid/unknown_tag.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1489e5e31a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/template/templates/invalid/unknown_tag.html
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+<!-- UNKNOWNTAG variable.html -->