diff --git a/src/rapidxml_loader.cpp b/src/rapidxml_loader.cpp
index 557ae0950..98ddeb336 100644
--- a/src/rapidxml_loader.cpp
+++ b/src/rapidxml_loader.cpp
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ public:
             // Parse using appropriate flags
             // https://github.com/mapnik/mapnik/issues/1856
             // const int f_tws = rapidxml::parse_normalize_whitespace;
-            const int f_tws = rapidxml::parse_trim_whitespace;
+            const int f_tws = rapidxml::parse_trim_whitespace | rapidxml::parse_validate_closing_tags;
             rapidxml::xml_document<> doc;
             doc.parse<f_tws>(&v.front());