diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 56cc07d27..192c37286 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ services: docker
 env:
   - VERSION=3.5 VARIANT=
   - VERSION=3.5 VARIANT=slim
+  - VERSION=3.5 VARIANT=alpine
   - VERSION=3.4 VARIANT=
   - VERSION=3.4 VARIANT=slim
   - VERSION=3.4 VARIANT=wheezy
diff --git a/3.5/Dockerfile b/3.5/Dockerfile
index 880fb05da..eaf89f4d3 100644
--- a/3.5/Dockerfile
+++ b/3.5/Dockerfile
@@ -16,12 +16,13 @@ ENV PYTHON_VERSION 3.5.1
 ENV PYTHON_PIP_VERSION 7.1.2
 
 RUN set -x \
-	&& mkdir -p /usr/src/python \
 	&& curl -fSL "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz" -o python.tar.xz \
 	&& curl -fSL "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz.asc" -o python.tar.xz.asc \
 	&& gpg --verify python.tar.xz.asc \
+	&& mkdir -p /usr/src/python \
 	&& tar -xJC /usr/src/python --strip-components=1 -f python.tar.xz \
 	&& rm python.tar.xz* \
+	\
 	&& cd /usr/src/python \
 	&& ./configure --enable-shared --enable-unicode=ucs4 \
 	&& make -j$(nproc) \
diff --git a/3.5/alpine/Dockerfile b/3.5/alpine/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4228ccec5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/3.5/alpine/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+FROM alpine:3.3
+
+# gpg: key F73C700D: public key "Larry Hastings <larry@hastings.org>" imported
+ENV GPG_KEY 97FC712E4C024BBEA48A61ED3A5CA953F73C700D
+
+ENV PYTHON_VERSION 3.5.1
+
+# if this is called "PIP_VERSION", pip explodes with "ValueError: invalid truth value '<VERSION>'"
+ENV PYTHON_PIP_VERSION 7.1.2
+
+RUN set -ex \
+	&& apk add --no-cache --virtual .fetch-deps curl gnupg \
+	&& gpg --keyserver ha.pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys "$GPG_KEY" \
+	&& curl -fSL "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz" -o python.tar.xz \
+	&& curl -fSL "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz.asc" -o python.tar.xz.asc \
+	&& gpg --verify python.tar.xz.asc \
+	&& mkdir -p /usr/src \
+	&& tar -xJC /usr/src -f python.tar.xz \
+	&& mv "/usr/src/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION" /usr/src/python \
+	&& rm python.tar.xz* \
+	&& apk del .fetch-deps \
+	&& rm -r ~/.gnupg \
+	\
+	&& apk add --no-cache --virtual .build-deps  \
+		bzip2-dev \
+		gcc \
+		libc-dev \
+		libedit-dev \
+		linux-headers \
+		make \
+		ncurses-dev \
+		openssl-dev \
+		pax-utils \
+		sqlite-dev \
+		zlib-dev \
+	&& cd /usr/src/python \
+	&& ./configure --enable-shared --enable-unicode=ucs4 \
+	&& make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) \
+	&& make install \
+	&& pip3 install --no-cache-dir --upgrade --ignore-installed pip==$PYTHON_PIP_VERSION \
+	&& find /usr/local \
+		\( -type d -a -name test -o -name tests \) \
+		-o \( -type f -a -name '*.pyc' -o -name '*.pyo' \) \
+		-exec rm -rf '{}' + \
+	&& runDeps="$( \
+		scanelf --needed --nobanner --recursive /usr/local \
+			| awk '{ gsub(/,/, "\nso:", $2); print "so:" $2 }' \
+			| sort -u \
+			| xargs -r apk info --installed \
+			| sort -u \
+	)" \
+	&& apk add --virtual .python-rundeps $runDeps \
+	&& apk del .build-deps \
+	&& rm -rf /usr/src/python
+
+# make some useful symlinks that are expected to exist
+RUN cd /usr/local/bin \
+	&& ln -s easy_install-3.5 easy_install \
+	&& ln -s idle3 idle \
+	&& ln -s pydoc3 pydoc \
+	&& ln -s python3 python \
+	&& ln -s python-config3 python-config
+
+CMD ["python3"]
diff --git a/3.5/slim/Dockerfile b/3.5/slim/Dockerfile
index 390913e61..336afb633 100644
--- a/3.5/slim/Dockerfile
+++ b/3.5/slim/Dockerfile
@@ -36,12 +36,13 @@ RUN set -x \
 		zlib1g-dev \
 	' \
 	&& apt-get update && apt-get install -y $buildDeps --no-install-recommends && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
-	&& mkdir -p /usr/src/python \
 	&& curl -fSL "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz" -o python.tar.xz \
 	&& curl -fSL "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${PYTHON_VERSION%%[a-z]*}/Python-$PYTHON_VERSION.tar.xz.asc" -o python.tar.xz.asc \
 	&& gpg --verify python.tar.xz.asc \
+	&& mkdir -p /usr/src/python \
 	&& tar -xJC /usr/src/python --strip-components=1 -f python.tar.xz \
 	&& rm python.tar.xz* \
+	\
 	&& cd /usr/src/python \
 	&& ./configure --enable-shared --enable-unicode=ucs4 \
 	&& make -j$(nproc) \