diff --git a/app/controllers/application.rb b/app/controllers/application.rb
index 7f8b1e6..a524dcf 100644
--- a/app/controllers/application.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/application.rb
@@ -8,8 +8,12 @@ class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
 
   def detect_stuff_by_domain
     @domain = Domain.find_by_name(request.host)
-    @virtual_community = @domain.virtual_community
-    @profile = @domain.profile
+    if @domain.nil?
+      @virtual_community = VirtualCommunity.default
+    else
+      @virtual_community = @domain.virtual_community
+      @profile = @domain.profile
+    end
   end
 
 end
diff --git a/test/functional/home_controller_test.rb b/test/functional/home_controller_test.rb
index 05018d0..4db8b6a 100644
--- a/test/functional/home_controller_test.rb
+++ b/test/functional/home_controller_test.rb
@@ -39,4 +39,16 @@ class HomeControllerTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
 
     assert_kind_of Profile, assigns(:profile)
   end
+
+  def test_unknown_domain_falls_back_to_default_virtual_community
+    uses_host 'veryunprobabledomain.com'
+
+    get :index
+    assert_template 'index'
+
+    assert_kind_of VirtualCommunity, assigns(:virtual_community)
+    assert assigns(:virtual_community).is_default?
+
+  end
+
 end
--
libgit2 0.21.2