diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 9daae97fc..e8a57a031 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -27,6 +27,10 @@ New features added
   built documentation, and only written to stderr.  If you want the
   old behavior, set the new config value ``keep_warnings`` to True.
 
+* The new config value ``highlight_language`` set a global default
+  for highlighting.  When ``'python3'`` is selected, console output
+  blocks are recognized like for ``'python'``.
+
 * ``SerializingHTMLBuilder`` was added as new abstract builder that
   can be subclassed to serialize build HTML in a specific format.
   The ``PickleHTMLBuilder`` is a concrete subclass of it that uses
diff --git a/doc/config.rst b/doc/config.rst
index 3f1007585..176da06ef 100644
--- a/doc/config.rst
+++ b/doc/config.rst
@@ -212,6 +212,14 @@ Project information
    %Y'`` (or, if translation is enabled with :confval:`language`, am equivalent
    %format for the selected locale).
 
+.. confval:: highlight_language
+
+   The default language to highlight source code in.  The default is
+   ``'python'``.  The value should be a valid Pygments lexer name, see
+   :ref:`code-examples` for more details.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 0.5
+   
 .. confval:: pygments_style
 
    The style name to use for Pygments highlighting of source code.  Default is
diff --git a/doc/markup/code.rst b/doc/markup/code.rst
index ca8f39bb8..f01070f69 100644
--- a/doc/markup/code.rst
+++ b/doc/markup/code.rst
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 .. highlight:: rest
 
+.. _code-examples:
+
 Showing code examples
 ---------------------
 
@@ -23,7 +25,9 @@ Syntax highlighting is done with `Pygments <http://pygments.org>`_ (if it's
 installed) and handled in a smart way:
 
 * There is a "highlighting language" for each source file.  Per default, this is
-  ``'python'`` as the majority of files will have to highlight Python snippets.
+  ``'python'`` as the majority of files will have to highlight Python snippets,
+  but the doc-wide default can be set with the :confval:`highlight_language`
+  config value.
 
 * Within Python highlighting mode, interactive sessions are recognized
   automatically and highlighted appropriately.
@@ -48,7 +52,7 @@ installed) and handled in a smart way:
 * The valid values for the highlighting language are:
 
   * ``none`` (no highlighting)
-  * ``python`` (the default)
+  * ``python`` (the default when :confval:`highlight_language` isn't set)
   * ``rest``
   * ``c``
   * ... and any other lexer name that Pygments supports.
diff --git a/sphinx/config.py b/sphinx/config.py
index 1d0f1085e..ac896424f 100644
--- a/sphinx/config.py
+++ b/sphinx/config.py
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ class Config(object):
         add_module_names = (True, True),
         show_authors = (False, True),
         pygments_style = ('sphinx', False),
+        highlight_language = ('python', False),
         templates_path = ([], False),
         template_bridge = (None, False),
         keep_warnings = (False, True),
diff --git a/sphinx/highlighting.py b/sphinx/highlighting.py
index 32217dd8e..a5f703027 100644
--- a/sphinx/highlighting.py
+++ b/sphinx/highlighting.py
@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@ else:
         none = TextLexer(),
         python = PythonLexer(),
         pycon = PythonConsoleLexer(),
+        # the python3 option exists as of Pygments 0.12, but it doesn't
+        # do any harm in previous versions
+        pycon3 = PythonConsoleLexer(python3=True),
         rest = RstLexer(),
         c = CLexer(),
     )
@@ -106,43 +109,54 @@ class PygmentsBridge(object):
             return '\\begin{Verbatim}[commandchars=@\\[\\]]\n' + \
                    source + '\\end{Verbatim}\n'
 
+    def try_parse(self, src):
+        # Make sure it ends in a newline
+        src += '\n'
+
+        # Replace "..." by a mark which is also a valid python expression
+        # (Note, the highlighter gets the original source, this is only done
+        #  to allow "..." in code and still highlight it as Python code.)
+        mark = "__highlighting__ellipsis__"
+        src = src.replace("...", mark)
+
+        # lines beginning with "..." are probably placeholders for suite
+        src = re.sub(r"(?m)^(\s*)" + mark + "(.)", r"\1"+ mark + r"# \2", src)
+
+        # if we're using 2.5, use the with statement
+        if sys.version_info >= (2, 5):
+            src = 'from __future__ import with_statement\n' + src
+
+        if isinstance(src, unicode):
+            # Non-ASCII chars will only occur in string literals
+            # and comments.  If we wanted to give them to the parser
+            # correctly, we'd have to find out the correct source
+            # encoding.  Since it may not even be given in a snippet,
+            # just replace all non-ASCII characters.
+            src = src.encode('ascii', 'replace')
+
+        try:
+            parser.suite(src)
+        except parsing_exceptions:
+            return False
+        else:
+            return True
+
     def highlight_block(self, source, lang, linenos=False):
         if not pygments:
             return self.unhighlighted(source)
-        if lang == 'python':
+        if lang in ('py', 'python'):
             if source.startswith('>>>'):
                 # interactive session
                 lexer = lexers['pycon']
             else:
                 # maybe Python -- try parsing it
-                src = source + '\n'
-
-                # Replace "..." by a mark which is also a valid python expression
-                # (Note, the highlighter gets the original source, this is only done
-                #  to allow "..." in code and still highlight it as Python code.)
-                mark = "__highlighting__ellipsis__"
-                src = src.replace("...", mark)
-
-                # lines beginning with "..." are probably placeholders for suite
-                src = re.sub(r"(?m)^(\s*)" + mark + "(.)", r"\1"+ mark + r"# \2", src)
-
-                # if we're using 2.5, use the with statement
-                if sys.version_info >= (2, 5):
-                    src = 'from __future__ import with_statement\n' + src
-
-                if isinstance(src, unicode):
-                    # Non-ASCII chars will only occur in string literals
-                    # and comments.  If we wanted to give them to the parser
-                    # correctly, we'd have to find out the correct source
-                    # encoding.  Since it may not even be given in a snippet,
-                    # just replace all non-ASCII characters.
-                    src = src.encode('ascii', 'replace')
-                try:
-                    parser.suite(src)
-                except parsing_exceptions:
-                    return self.unhighlighted(source)
-                else:
+                if self.try_parse(source):
                     lexer = lexers['python']
+                else:
+                    return self.unhighlighted(source)
+        elif lang in ('python3', 'py3') and source.startswith('>>>'):
+            # for py3, recognize interactive sessions, but do not try parsing...
+            lexer = lexers['pycon3']
         else:
             if lang in lexers:
                 lexer = lexers[lang]
diff --git a/sphinx/htmlwriter.py b/sphinx/htmlwriter.py
index 8eb3dad4f..424441afb 100644
--- a/sphinx/htmlwriter.py
+++ b/sphinx/htmlwriter.py
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ class HTMLTranslator(BaseTranslator):
         self.highlighter = PygmentsBridge('html', builder.config.pygments_style)
         self.no_smarty = 0
         self.builder = builder
-        self.highlightlang = 'python'
+        self.highlightlang = builder.config.highlight_language
         self.highlightlinenothreshold = sys.maxint
         self.protect_literal_text = 0
 
diff --git a/sphinx/latexwriter.py b/sphinx/latexwriter.py
index 196ed6d9a..136e50786 100644
--- a/sphinx/latexwriter.py
+++ b/sphinx/latexwriter.py
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ class LaTeXTranslator(nodes.NodeVisitor):
         self.bibitems = []
         self.table = None
         self.next_table_colspec = None
-        self.highlightlang = 'python'
+        self.highlightlang = builder.config.highlight_language
         self.highlightlinenothreshold = sys.maxint
         self.written_ids = set()
         if docclass == 'manual':