diff --git a/hugolib/site.go b/hugolib/site.go
index 45912abcd..173218191 100644
--- a/hugolib/site.go
+++ b/hugolib/site.go
@@ -697,7 +697,7 @@ func (s *Site) BuildSiteMeta() (err error) {
 
 	s.assembleTaxonomies()
 	s.assembleSections()
-	s.Info.LastChange = s.Pages[0].Date
+	s.Info.LastChange = s.Pages[0].Lastmod
 
 	return
 }
diff --git a/tpl/template_embedded.go b/tpl/template_embedded.go
index 317959f29..e31bcf179 100644
--- a/tpl/template_embedded.go
+++ b/tpl/template_embedded.go
@@ -73,8 +73,8 @@ func (t *GoHTMLTemplate) EmbedTemplates() {
 	t.AddInternalTemplate("_default", "sitemap.xml", `<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
   {{ range .Data.Pages }}
   <url>
-    <loc>{{ .Permalink }}</loc>{{ if not .Date.IsZero }}
-    <lastmod>{{ safeHTML ( .Date.Format "2006-01-02T15:04:05-07:00" ) }}</lastmod>{{ end }}{{ with .Sitemap.ChangeFreq }}
+    <loc>{{ .Permalink }}</loc>{{ if not .Lastmod.IsZero }}
+    <lastmod>{{ safeHTML ( .Lastmod.Format "2006-01-02T15:04:05-07:00" ) }}</lastmod>{{ end }}{{ with .Sitemap.ChangeFreq }}
     <changefreq>{{ . }}</changefreq>{{ end }}{{ if ge .Sitemap.Priority 0.0 }}
     <priority>{{ .Sitemap.Priority }}</priority>{{ end }}
   </url>