diff --git a/cypress/e2e/middleware/standard.cy.ts b/cypress/e2e/middleware/standard.cy.ts
index 780f9f0c85..4992e0186c 100644
--- a/cypress/e2e/middleware/standard.cy.ts
+++ b/cypress/e2e/middleware/standard.cy.ts
@@ -45,6 +45,12 @@ describe('Standard middleware', () => {
       expect(response.headers).to.have.property('x-foo', 'bar')
     })
   })
+
+  it('preserves locale on rewrites (skipMiddlewareUrlNormalize: true)', () => {
+    cy.visit('/de-de/locale-preserving-rewrite')
+    cy.get('div').should('contain', 'Locale: de-DE')
+    cy.url().should('eq', `${Cypress.config().baseUrl}/de-de/locale-preserving-rewrite`)
+  })
 })
 
 describe('Middleware matchers', () => {
diff --git a/demos/middleware/middleware.ts b/demos/middleware/middleware.ts
index d93e5fa9b6..9206540da1 100644
--- a/demos/middleware/middleware.ts
+++ b/demos/middleware/middleware.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,9 @@ export async function middleware(req: NextRequest) {
   }
   
   const request = new MiddlewareRequest(req)
-  if (pathname.startsWith('/static')) {
+
+  // skipMiddlewareUrlNormalize next config option is used so we have to try to match both html path and data blob path
+  if (pathname.startsWith('/static') || pathname.endsWith('/static.json')) {
     // Unlike NextResponse.next(), this actually sends the request to the origin
     const res = await request.next()
     const message = `This was static (& escaping test &) but has been transformed in ${req.geo?.city}`
@@ -36,7 +38,8 @@ export async function middleware(req: NextRequest) {
     return res
   }
 
-  if (pathname.startsWith('/request-rewrite')) {
+  // skipMiddlewareUrlNormalize next config option is used so we have to try to match both html path and data blob path
+  if (pathname.startsWith('/request-rewrite') || pathname.endsWith('/request-rewrite.json')) {
     // request.rewrite() should return the MiddlewareResponse object instead of the Response object.
     const res = await request.rewrite('/static-rewrite')
     const message = `This was static (& escaping test &) but has been transformed in ${req.geo?.city}`
@@ -100,6 +103,10 @@ export async function middleware(req: NextRequest) {
     return response
   }
 
+  if (pathname.includes('locale-preserving-rewrite')) {
+    return NextResponse.rewrite(new URL('/locale-test', req.url))
+  }
+
   if (pathname.startsWith('/shows')) {
     if (pathname.startsWith('/shows/222')) {
       response = NextResponse.next()
@@ -151,6 +158,7 @@ export const config = {
   matcher: [
     '/api/:all*',
     '/headers',
+    '/:all*/locale-preserving-rewrite',
     '/cookies/:path*',
     { source: '/static' },
     {source: '/request-rewrite' },
diff --git a/demos/middleware/next.config.js b/demos/middleware/next.config.js
index 9ce274ced3..ee7bb8a36e 100644
--- a/demos/middleware/next.config.js
+++ b/demos/middleware/next.config.js
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ const nextConfig = {
     defaultLocale: 'en',
     locales: ['en', 'de-DE'],
   },
+  skipMiddlewareUrlNormalize: true,
 }
 
 module.exports = nextConfig
diff --git a/demos/middleware/pages/locale-test.js b/demos/middleware/pages/locale-test.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..67d8592b1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/demos/middleware/pages/locale-test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+import * as React from 'react'
+
+const Page = ({ pageLocale }) => {
+  return <div>Locale: {pageLocale}</div>
+}
+
+export async function getServerSideProps({ locale }) {
+  return {
+    props: {
+      pageLocale: locale,
+    },
+  }
+}
+
+export default Page
diff --git a/packages/runtime/src/templates/edge-shared/utils.ts b/packages/runtime/src/templates/edge-shared/utils.ts
index 09ea64a113..f679ad2037 100644
--- a/packages/runtime/src/templates/edge-shared/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/runtime/src/templates/edge-shared/utils.ts
@@ -270,6 +270,9 @@ export const buildResponse = async ({
     }
     res.headers.set('x-middleware-rewrite', relativeUrl)
 
+    request.headers.set('x-original-path', new URL(request.url, `http://n`).pathname)
+    request.headers.set('x-middleware-rewrite', rewrite)
+
     return addMiddlewareHeaders(context.rewrite(rewrite), res)
   }
 
diff --git a/packages/runtime/src/templates/handlerUtils.ts b/packages/runtime/src/templates/handlerUtils.ts
index dce9ea7541..01ae1b1024 100644
--- a/packages/runtime/src/templates/handlerUtils.ts
+++ b/packages/runtime/src/templates/handlerUtils.ts
@@ -189,6 +189,13 @@ export const normalizePath = (event: HandlerEvent) => {
       return originalPath
     }
   }
+
+  if (event.headers['x-original-path']) {
+    if (event.headers['x-next-debug-logging']) {
+      console.log('Original path:', event.headers['x-original-path'])
+    }
+    return event.headers['x-original-path']
+  }
   // Ensure that paths are encoded - but don't double-encode them
   return new URL(event.rawUrl).pathname
 }
diff --git a/packages/runtime/src/templates/server.ts b/packages/runtime/src/templates/server.ts
index 577d6d7b0d..0c8d86f486 100644
--- a/packages/runtime/src/templates/server.ts
+++ b/packages/runtime/src/templates/server.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
-import { PrerenderManifest } from 'next/dist/build'
+// eslint-disable-next-line n/no-deprecated-api -- this is what Next.js uses as well
+import { parse } from 'url'
+
+import type { PrerenderManifest } from 'next/dist/build'
 import type { BaseNextResponse } from 'next/dist/server/base-http'
 import type { NodeRequestHandler, Options } from 'next/dist/server/next-server'
 
@@ -36,6 +39,10 @@ const getNetlifyNextServer = (NextServer: NextServerType) => {
     public getRequestHandler(): NodeRequestHandler {
       const handler = super.getRequestHandler()
       return async (req, res, parsedUrl) => {
+        if (!parsedUrl && typeof req?.headers?.['x-middleware-rewrite'] === 'string') {
+          parsedUrl = parse(req.headers['x-middleware-rewrite'], true)
+        }
+
         // preserve the URL before Next.js mutates it for i18n
         const { url, headers } = req