diff --git a/src/form.cc b/src/form.cc
index 8380756..a4f5d31 100644
--- a/src/form.cc
+++ b/src/form.cc
@@ -360,7 +360,7 @@ void Html_tag_open_form(DilloHtml *html, const char *tag, int tagsize)
    else {
       if (html->DocType != DT_HTML || html->DocTypeVersion <= 4.01f)
          BUG_MSG("<form> requires action attribute.");
-      action = a_Url_dup(html->base_url);
+      action = a_Url_dup(html->base_url.get());
    }
    content_type = DILLO_HTML_ENC_URLENCODED;
    if ((method == DILLO_HTML_METHOD_POST) &&
@@ -584,7 +584,7 @@ void Html_tag_open_isindex(DilloHtml *html, const char *tag, int tagsize)
    if ((attrbuf = a_Html_get_attr(html, tag, tagsize, "action")))
       action = a_Html_url_new(html, attrbuf, NULL, 0);
    else
-      action = a_Url_dup(html->base_url);
+      action = a_Url_dup(html->base_url.get());
 
    html->formNew(DILLO_HTML_METHOD_GET, action.get(), DILLO_HTML_ENC_URLENCODED,
                  html->charset.has_value() ? html->charset.value().c_str() : nullptr);
diff --git a/src/html.cc b/src/html.cc
index 75577f1..4dd53bb 100644
--- a/src/html.cc
+++ b/src/html.cc
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ std::unique_ptr< DilloUrl > a_Html_url_new(DilloHtml *html,
    }
 
    std::unique_ptr< DilloUrl > url = a_Url_new(url_str,
-                   (use_base_url) ? base_url : URL_STR_(html->base_url));
+                   (use_base_url) ? base_url : URL_STR_(html->base_url.get()));
 
    if (!url) {
       BUG_MSG("URL is not valid '%s'.", url_str);
@@ -446,7 +446,7 @@ DilloHtml::DilloHtml(BrowserWindow *p_bw, const DilloUrl *url,
    /* Init main variables */
    bw = p_bw;
    page_url = a_Url_dup(url);
-   base_url = a_Url_dup(url).release();
+   base_url = a_Url_dup(url);
    dw = NULL;
 
    /* Init event receiver */
@@ -473,7 +473,7 @@ DilloHtml::DilloHtml(BrowserWindow *p_bw, const DilloUrl *url,
    DocType = DT_NONE;    /* assume Tag Soup 0.0!   :-) */
    DocTypeVersion = 0.0f;
 
-   styleEngine = std::make_unique< StyleEngine >(HT2LT (this), page_url.get(), base_url, bw->zoom);
+   styleEngine = std::make_unique< StyleEngine >(HT2LT (this), page_url.get(), base_url.get(), bw->zoom);
 
    stack = new misc::SimpleVector <DilloHtmlState> (16);
    stack->increase();
@@ -547,8 +547,6 @@ DilloHtml::~DilloHtml()
    freeParseData();
 
    a_Bw_remove_doc(bw, this);
-
-   delete base_url;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -1747,7 +1745,7 @@ static void Html_tag_open_style(DilloHtml *html, const char *tag, int tagsize)
 static void Html_tag_close_style(DilloHtml *html)
 {
    if (prefs.parse_embedded_css && html->loadCssFromStash)
-      html->styleEngine->parse(html, html->base_url, html->Stash->str,
+      html->styleEngine->parse(html, html->base_url.get(), html->Stash->str,
                                html->Stash->len, CSS_ORIGIN_AUTHOR);
 }
 
@@ -3131,7 +3129,7 @@ static void Html_tag_open_meta(DilloHtml *html, const char *tag, int tagsize)
 
          auto new_url = a_Html_url_new(html, mr_url, NULL, 0);
 
-         if (a_Url_cmp(html->base_url, new_url.get()) == 0) {
+         if (a_Url_cmp(html->base_url.get(), new_url.get()) == 0) {
             /* redirection loop, or empty url string: ignore */
             BUG_MSG("<meta> refresh: %s.",
                     *mr_url ? "redirection loop" : "no target URL");
@@ -3298,25 +3296,23 @@ static void Html_tag_open_link(DilloHtml *html, const char *tag, int tagsize)
 static void Html_tag_open_base(DilloHtml *html, const char *tag, int tagsize)
 {
    const char *attrbuf;
-   DilloUrl *BaseUrl;
+   std::unique_ptr< DilloUrl > BaseUrl;
 
    if (html->InFlags & IN_HEAD) {
       if ((attrbuf = a_Html_get_attr(html, tag, tagsize, "href"))) {
          bool_t html5 = html->DocType == DT_HTML &&
                         html->DocTypeVersion >= 5.0f;
 
-         BaseUrl = html5 ? a_Html_url_new(html, attrbuf, NULL, 0).release() :
-                           a_Html_url_new(html, attrbuf, "", 1).release();
+         BaseUrl = html5 ? a_Html_url_new(html, attrbuf, NULL, 0) :
+                           a_Html_url_new(html, attrbuf, "", 1);
 
-         if (html5 || URL_SCHEME_(BaseUrl)) {
+         if (html5 || URL_SCHEME_(BaseUrl.get())) {
             /* Pass the URL_SpamSafe flag to the new base url */
             a_Url_set_flags(
-               BaseUrl, URL_FLAGS(html->base_url) & URL_SpamSafe);
-            delete html->base_url;
-            html->base_url = BaseUrl;
+               BaseUrl.get(), URL_FLAGS(html->base_url) & URL_SpamSafe);
+            html->base_url = std::move( BaseUrl );
          } else {
             BUG_MSG("<base> URI is relative (it MUST be absolute).");
-            delete BaseUrl;
          }
       }
    } else {
diff --git a/src/html_common.hh b/src/html_common.hh
index 2854468..dd47f14 100644
--- a/src/html_common.hh
+++ b/src/html_common.hh
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ public:  //BUG: for now everything is public
 
    BrowserWindow *bw;
    std::unique_ptr< DilloUrl > page_url;
-   DilloUrl *base_url;
+   std::unique_ptr< DilloUrl > base_url;
    dw::core::Widget *dw;    /* this is duplicated in the stack */
 
    /* -------------------------------------------------------------------*/