diff --git a/Eigen/src/Geometry/Transform.h b/Eigen/src/Geometry/Transform.h
index 3670767aad..3090351a06 100644
--- a/Eigen/src/Geometry/Transform.h
+++ b/Eigen/src/Geometry/Transform.h
@@ -605,7 +605,9 @@ public:
   template<typename Derived>
   EIGEN_DEVICE_FUNC inline Transform operator*(const RotationBase<Derived,Dim>& r) const;
 
-  EIGEN_DEVICE_FUNC const LinearMatrixType rotation() const;
+  typedef typename internal::conditional<int(Mode)==Isometry,ConstLinearPart,const LinearMatrixType>::type RotationReturnType;
+  EIGEN_DEVICE_FUNC RotationReturnType rotation() const;
+
   template<typename RotationMatrixType, typename ScalingMatrixType>
   EIGEN_DEVICE_FUNC
   void computeRotationScaling(RotationMatrixType *rotation, ScalingMatrixType *scaling) const;
@@ -1049,20 +1051,43 @@ EIGEN_DEVICE_FUNC inline Transform<Scalar,Dim,Mode,Options> Transform<Scalar,Dim
 *** Special functions ***
 ************************/
 
+namespace internal {
+template<int Mode> struct transform_rotation_impl {
+  template<typename TransformType>
+  EIGEN_DEVICE_FUNC static inline
+  const typename TransformType::LinearMatrixType run(const TransformType& t)
+  {
+    typedef typename TransformType::LinearMatrixType LinearMatrixType; 
+    LinearMatrixType result;
+    t.computeRotationScaling(&result, (LinearMatrixType*)0);
+    return result;
+  }
+};
+template<> struct transform_rotation_impl<Isometry> {
+  template<typename TransformType>
+  EIGEN_DEVICE_FUNC static inline
+  typename TransformType::ConstLinearPart run(const TransformType& t)
+  {
+    return t.linear();
+  }
+};
+}
 /** \returns the rotation part of the transformation
   *
+  * If Mode==Isometry, then this method is an alias for linear(),
+  * otherwise it calls computeRotationScaling() to extract the rotation
+  * through a SVD decomposition.
   *
   * \svd_module
   *
   * \sa computeRotationScaling(), computeScalingRotation(), class SVD
   */
 template<typename Scalar, int Dim, int Mode, int Options>
-EIGEN_DEVICE_FUNC const typename Transform<Scalar,Dim,Mode,Options>::LinearMatrixType
+EIGEN_DEVICE_FUNC
+typename Transform<Scalar,Dim,Mode,Options>::RotationReturnType
 Transform<Scalar,Dim,Mode,Options>::rotation() const
 {
-  LinearMatrixType result;
-  computeRotationScaling(&result, (LinearMatrixType*)0);
-  return result;
+  return internal::transform_rotation_impl<Mode>::run(*this);
 }
 
 
diff --git a/test/geo_transformations.cpp b/test/geo_transformations.cpp
index 25f1d9aa0e..c722679559 100755
--- a/test/geo_transformations.cpp
+++ b/test/geo_transformations.cpp
@@ -666,6 +666,10 @@ template<typename Scalar, int Mode, int Options> void transformations_no_scale()
   VERIFY((m3 * m3.inverse()).isIdentity(test_precision<Scalar>()));
   // Verify implicit last row is initialized.
   VERIFY_IS_APPROX(Vector4(m3.row(3)), Vector4(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0));
+
+  VERIFY_IS_APPROX(t3.rotation(), t3.linear());
+  if(Mode==Isometry)
+    VERIFY(t3.rotation().data()==t3.linear().data());
 }
 
 EIGEN_DECLARE_TEST(geo_transformations)