diff -urN a/Include/py_curses.h b/Include/py_curses.h
--- a/Include/py_curses.h	2013-10-20 19:31:55.902479600 +0100
+++ b/Include/py_curses.h	2013-10-20 19:32:30.732471800 +0100
@@ -17,6 +17,13 @@
 #define NCURSES_OPAQUE 0
 #endif /* __APPLE__ */
 
+#ifdef __CYGWIN__
+/* the following define is necessary for Cygwin; without it, the
+   Cygwin-supplied ncurses.h sets NCURSES_OPAQUE to 1, and then Python
+   can't get at the WINDOW flags field. */
+#define NCURSES_INTERNALS
+#endif /* __CYGWIN__ */
+
 #ifdef __FreeBSD__
 /*
 ** On FreeBSD, [n]curses.h and stdlib.h/wchar.h use different guards