diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6a0a9770..3014c019 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 ### Added
+- Fix `build.rs` to work with Anaconda python
 - Add FFI definitions `Py_FinalizeEx`, `PyOS_getsig`, `PyOS_setsig`. [#1021](https://github.com/PyO3/pyo3/pull/1021)
 - Add `Python::with_gil` for executing a closure with the Python GIL. [#1037](https://github.com/PyO3/pyo3/pull/1037)
 - Implement `Debug` for `PyIterator`. [#1051](https://github.com/PyO3/pyo3/pull/1051)
diff --git a/build.rs b/build.rs
index 04ea5a47..9a61050e 100644
--- a/build.rs
+++ b/build.rs
@@ -680,9 +680,15 @@ import platform
 import struct
 import sys
 import sysconfig
+import os.path
 
 PYPY = platform.python_implementation() == "PyPy"
 
+# Anaconda based python distributions have a static python executable, but include
+# the shared library. Use the shared library for embedding to avoid rust trying to
+# LTO the static library (and failing with newer gcc's, because it is old).
+ANACONDA = os.path.exists(os.path.join(sys.prefix, 'conda-meta'))
+
 try:
     base_prefix = sys.base_prefix
 except AttributeError:
@@ -697,7 +703,7 @@ if libdir is not None:
     print("libdir", libdir)
 print("ld_version", sysconfig.get_config_var('LDVERSION') or sysconfig.get_config_var('py_version_short'))
 print("base_prefix", base_prefix)
-print("shared", PYPY or bool(sysconfig.get_config_var('Py_ENABLE_SHARED')))
+print("shared", PYPY or ANACONDA or bool(sysconfig.get_config_var('Py_ENABLE_SHARED')))
 print("executable", sys.executable)
 print("calcsize_pointer", struct.calcsize("P"))
 "#;