diff --git a/bindings/python/python_to_value.hpp b/bindings/python/python_to_value.hpp
index da4830e8a..24c8e5556 100644
--- a/bindings/python/python_to_value.hpp
+++ b/bindings/python/python_to_value.hpp
@@ -35,7 +35,6 @@
 #include <mapnik/unicode.hpp>
 #include <mapnik/attribute.hpp>
 
-
 namespace mapnik {
 
     static mapnik::attributes dict2attr(boost::python::dict const& d)
@@ -46,7 +45,26 @@ namespace mapnik {
         boost::python::list keys=d.keys();
         for (int i=0; i < len(keys); ++i)
         {
-            std::string key = extract<std::string>(keys[i]);
+            std::string key;
+            object obj_key = keys[i];
+            if (PyUnicode_Check(obj_key.ptr()))
+            {
+                PyObject* temp = PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(obj_key.ptr());
+                if (temp)
+                {
+    #if PY_VERSION_HEX >= 0x03000000
+                    char* c_str = PyBytes_AsString(temp);
+    #else
+                    char* c_str = PyString_AsString(temp);
+    #endif
+                    key = c_str;
+                    Py_DecRef(temp);
+                }
+            }
+            else
+            {
+                key = extract<std::string>(keys[i]);
+            }
             object obj = d[key];
             if (PyUnicode_Check(obj.ptr()))
             {