diff --git a/tests/dockerfile_mpi b/tests/dockerfile_mpi
index 7735bf23..5b093937 100644
--- a/tests/dockerfile_mpi
+++ b/tests/dockerfile_mpi
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 FROM ubuntu:18.04
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 MAINTAINER Matthias Hochsteger <matthias.hochsteger@tuwien.ac.at>
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install python3 libpython3-dev libxmu-dev tk-dev tcl-dev cmake git g++ libglu1-mesa-dev ccache python3-pytest python3-numpy python3-tk python3-mpi4py clang-tidy python3-distutils clang libopenmpi-dev openmpi-bin gfortran
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install python3 libpython3-dev python3-pip libxmu-dev tk-dev tcl-dev cmake git g++ libglu1-mesa-dev ccache python3-pytest python3-numpy python3-tk python3-mpi4py clang-tidy python3-distutils clang libopenmpi-dev openmpi-bin gfortran
+RUN python3 -m pip install pytest-mpi
 ADD . /root/src/netgen
diff --git a/tests/pytest/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/pytest/CMakeLists.txt
index bc6b8b26..26c7d22f 100644
--- a/tests/pytest/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/pytest/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2,4 +2,7 @@ if(USE_PYTHON)
     add_test(NAME pytest COMMAND ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE} -m pytest WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
     add_custom_target(pytest ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE} -m pytest WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
     set_tests_properties ( pytest PROPERTIES TIMEOUT 1800 )
+    if(USE_MPI AND USE_MPI4PY)
+      add_test(NAME pytest-mpi COMMAND ${MPIEXEC_EXECUTABLE} --allow-run-as-root -np 4 ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE} -m pytest --with-mpi test_mpi4py.py WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
+    endif(USE_MPI AND USE_MPI4PY)
 endif(USE_PYTHON)
diff --git a/tests/pytest/test_mpi4py.py b/tests/pytest/test_mpi4py.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b4c85902
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/pytest/test_mpi4py.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+import pytest
+import netgen.meshing
+
+mpi4py = pytest.importorskip("mpi4py")
+
+@pytest.mark.mpi
+def test_mpi4py():
+    comm = mpi4py.MPI.COMM_WORLD
+
+    if comm.rank==0:
+        from netgen.csg import unit_cube
+        m = unit_cube.GenerateMesh(maxh=0.1)
+        m.Save("mpimesh")
+
+    comm.Barrier()
+
+    mesh = netgen.meshing.Mesh(3, comm)
+    mesh.Load("mpimesh.vol.gz")
+
+    if comm.rank==0:
+        assert mesh.ne==0