diff --git a/src/Render/FriendicaSmarty.php b/src/Render/FriendicaSmarty.php
index c6dcef429b..50282c38eb 100644
--- a/src/Render/FriendicaSmarty.php
+++ b/src/Render/FriendicaSmarty.php
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ class FriendicaSmarty extends Smarty
 
 	public $filename;
 
-	function __construct(string $theme, array $theme_info)
+	public function __construct(string $theme, array $theme_info, string $work_dir)
 	{
 		parent::__construct();
 
@@ -46,13 +46,28 @@ class FriendicaSmarty extends Smarty
 
 		$template_dirs = $template_dirs + ['base' => 'view/' . self::SMARTY3_TEMPLATE_FOLDER . '/'];
 		$this->setTemplateDir($template_dirs);
+		
+		$work_dir = rtrim($work_dir, '/');
 
-		$this->setCompileDir('view/smarty3/compiled/');
-		$this->setConfigDir('view/smarty3/');
-		$this->setCacheDir('view/smarty3/');
+		$this->setCompileDir($work_dir . '/compiled');
+		$this->setConfigDir($work_dir . '/');
+		$this->setCacheDir($work_dir . '/');
 
-		$this->left_delimiter = Renderer::getTemplateLeftDelimiter('smarty3');
-		$this->right_delimiter = Renderer::getTemplateRightDelimiter('smarty3');
+		/*
+		 * Enable sub-directory splitting for reducing directory descriptor
+		 * size. The default behavior is to put all compiled/cached files into
+		 * one single directory. Under Linux and EXT4 (and maybe other FS) this
+		 * will increase the descriptor's size (which contains information
+		 * about entries inside the described directory. If the descriptor is
+		 * getting to big, the system will slow down as it has to read the
+		 * whole directory descriptor all over again (unless you have tons of
+		 * RAM available + have enabled caching inode tables (aka.
+		 * "descriptors"). Still it won't hurt you.
+		 */
+		$this->setUseSubDirs(true);
+
+		$this->left_delimiter  = Renderer::getTemplateLeftDelimiter();
+		$this->right_delimiter = Renderer::getTemplateRightDelimiter();
 
 		$this->escape_html = true;
 
diff --git a/src/Render/FriendicaSmartyEngine.php b/src/Render/FriendicaSmartyEngine.php
index c64fd29e52..9fe3bf9883 100644
--- a/src/Render/FriendicaSmartyEngine.php
+++ b/src/Render/FriendicaSmartyEngine.php
@@ -46,23 +46,11 @@ final class FriendicaSmartyEngine extends TemplateEngine
 	{
 		$this->theme = $theme;
 		$this->theme_info = $theme_info;
-		$this->smarty = new FriendicaSmarty($this->theme, $this->theme_info);
+		$work_dir = DI::config()->get('smarty3', 'config_dir');
+		$this->smarty = new FriendicaSmarty($this->theme, $this->theme_info, $work_dir);
 
-		/*
-		 * Enable sub-directory splitting for reducing directory descriptor
-		 * size. The default behavior is to put all compiled/cached files into
-		 * one single directory. Under Linux and EXT4 (and maybe other FS) this
-		 * will increase the descriptor's size (which contains information
-		 * about entries inside the described directory. If the descriptor is
-		 * getting to big, the system will slow down as it has to read the
-		 * whole directory descriptor all over again (unless you have tons of
-		 * RAM available + have enabled caching inode tables (aka.
-		 * "descriptors"). Still it won't hurt you.
-		 */
-		$this->smarty->setUseSubDirs(true);
-
-		if (!is_writable(DI::basePath() . '/view/smarty3')) {
-			$admin_message = DI::l10n()->t('The folder view/smarty3/ must be writable by webserver.');
+		if (!is_writable($work_dir)) {
+			$admin_message = DI::l10n()->t('The folder %s must be writable by webserver.', $work_dir);
 			DI::logger()->critical($admin_message);
 			$message = DI::app()->isSiteAdmin() ?
 				$admin_message :
diff --git a/static/defaults.config.php b/static/defaults.config.php
index 7e34ae66e7..70b0af7810 100644
--- a/static/defaults.config.php
+++ b/static/defaults.config.php
@@ -701,5 +701,10 @@ return [
 		// ap_log_failure (Boolean)
 		// Logs every ActivityPub activity that couldn't be compacted
 		'ap_log_failure' => false,
-	]
+	],
+	'smarty3' => [
+		// config_dir (String)
+		// Base working directory for the templating engine, must be writeable by the webserver user
+		'config_dir' => 'view/smarty3',
+	],
 ];