diff --git a/honeypot/__init__.py b/honeypot/__init__.py
index 70d7988..515d358 100644
--- a/honeypot/__init__.py
+++ b/honeypot/__init__.py
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ class RootResource:
     def pre_init(cls, moin_config_dir):
         cls.moin_config_dir = moin_config_dir
         moin_farmconfig = os.path.join(moin_config_dir, 'farmconfig.py')
-        with open(moin_farmconfig, 'r') as fh:
+        encoding = utils.guess_encoding(moin_farmconfig)
+        with open(moin_farmconfig, 'r', encoding=encoding) as fh:
             cls.moin_wiki_defs = list(utils.extract_wiki_definitions(fh))
 
 
@@ -55,7 +56,8 @@ class RootResource:
     def _get_wiki_data_dir(self):
         wiki_name = self._get_wiki_name()
         wiki_config = os.path.join(cls.moin_config_dir, wiki_name + '.py')
-        with open(wiki_config, 'r') as fh:
+        encoding = utils.guess_encoding(wiki_config)
+        with open(wiki_config, 'r', encoding=encoding) as fh:
             data_dir = utils.extract_data_dir(fh)
         return data_dir
 
diff --git a/honeypot/utils.py b/honeypot/utils.py
index 803dd76..6d4e8ea 100644
--- a/honeypot/utils.py
+++ b/honeypot/utils.py
@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
+from chardet.universaldetector import UniversalDetector
+
+
+def guess_encoding(path):
+    detector = UniversalDetector()
+    with open(path, 'rb') as fh:
+        for line in fh:
+            detector.feed(line)
+            if detector.done: break
+    detector.close()
+    return detector.result['encoding']
+
+
 def extract_wiki_definitions(file_handle):
     for line in file_handle:
         if line.startswith('wikis = ['):
@@ -30,3 +43,8 @@ def extract_data_dir(fh):
 
 def dict_helper(dict_like):
     return ['    %s: %s' % (k, v) for k, v in dict_like.items()]
+
+
+
+
+
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 0659866..1db204f 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ with open(os.path.join(here, 'README.md')) as f:
     README = f.read()
 
 requires = [
+    'chardet',
     'plaster_pastedeploy',
     'pyramid',
     'waitress',