diff --git a/mercurial/configitems.py b/mercurial/configitems.py
--- a/mercurial/configitems.py
+++ b/mercurial/configitems.py
@@ -730,6 +730,9 @@ coreconfigitem('web', 'errorlog',
 coreconfigitem('web', 'ipv6',
     default=False,
 )
+coreconfigitem('web', 'maxchanges',
+    default=10,
+)
 coreconfigitem('web', 'maxfiles',
     default=10,
 )
diff --git a/mercurial/hgweb/hgweb_mod.py b/mercurial/hgweb/hgweb_mod.py
--- a/mercurial/hgweb/hgweb_mod.py
+++ b/mercurial/hgweb/hgweb_mod.py
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ class requestcontext(object):
 
         self.archivespecs = archivespecs
 
-        self.maxchanges = self.configint('web', 'maxchanges', 10)
+        self.maxchanges = self.configint('web', 'maxchanges')
         self.stripecount = self.configint('web', 'stripes')
         self.maxshortchanges = self.configint('web', 'maxshortchanges')
         self.maxfiles = self.configint('web', 'maxfiles')