diff --git a/setupext.py b/setupext.py
index 2eed52514040..58512a5d0581 100644
--- a/setupext.py
+++ b/setupext.py
@@ -396,8 +396,8 @@ def get_extensions(self):
             include_dirs=["src"],
             # psapi library needed for finding Tcl/Tk at run time.
             # user32 library needed for window manipulation functions.
-            libraries=({"linux": ["dl"], "win32": ["psapi", "user32"]}
-                       .get(sys.platform, [])),
+            libraries=({"linux": ["dl"], "win32": ["psapi", "user32"],
+                        "cygwin": ["psapi"]}.get(sys.platform, [])),
             extra_link_args={"win32": ["-mwindows"]}.get(sys.platform, []))
         add_numpy_flags(ext)
         add_libagg_flags(ext)
diff --git a/src/_tkagg.cpp b/src/_tkagg.cpp
index 9a03aed82331..eb2b172b115c 100644
--- a/src/_tkagg.cpp
+++ b/src/_tkagg.cpp
@@ -11,6 +11,20 @@
 #include <Python.h>
 
 #ifdef _WIN32
+#define WIN32_DLL
+#endif
+#ifdef __CYGWIN__
+/*
+ * Unfortunately cygwin's libdl inherits restrictions from the underlying
+ * Windows OS, at least currently. Therefore, a symbol may be loaded from a
+ * module by dlsym() only if it is really located in the given modile,
+ * dependencies are not included. So we have to use native WinAPI on Cygwin
+ * also.
+ */
+#define WIN32_DLL
+#endif
+
+#ifdef WIN32_DLL
 #include <windows.h>
 #define PSAPI_VERSION 1
 #include <psapi.h>  // Must be linked with 'psapi' library
@@ -122,7 +136,7 @@ int load_tk(T lib)
             (Tk_PhotoPutBlock_NoComposite_t)dlsym(lib, "Tk_PhotoPutBlock_NoComposite"));
 }
 
-#ifdef _WIN32
+#ifdef WIN32_DLL
 
 /*
  * On Windows, we can't load the tkinter module to get the Tk symbols, because