diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index cd36d83957b..99b6557e5fc 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -140,6 +140,8 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #14059: LaTeX: Footnotes cause pdflatex error with French language
   (since late June 2025 upstream change to LaTeX ``babel-french``).
   Patch by Jean-François B.
+* #13916: HTML Search: do not clear text fragments from the URL on page load.
+  Patch by Harmen Stoppels.
 
 
 Testing
diff --git a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/sphinx_highlight.js b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/sphinx_highlight.js
index ce735d52ee4..a74e103a831 100644
--- a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/sphinx_highlight.js
+++ b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/sphinx_highlight.js
@@ -80,8 +80,12 @@ const SphinxHighlight = {
       || url.searchParams.get("highlight")
       || "";
     localStorage.removeItem("sphinx_highlight_terms");
-    url.searchParams.delete("highlight");
-    window.history.replaceState({}, "", url);
+    // Update history only if '?highlight' is present; otherwise it
+    // clears text fragments (not set in window.location by the browser)
+    if (url.searchParams.has("highlight")) {
+      url.searchParams.delete("highlight");
+      window.history.replaceState({}, "", url);
+    }
 
     // get individual terms from highlight string
     const terms = highlight