diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index fe65c0475..241f60fd3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ### Added
 
 - Automatically use `load_url` when providing a URL as geometries to `DataCube.aggregate_spatial()`, `DataCube.mask_polygon()`, etc. ([#104](https://github.com/Open-EO/openeo-python-client/issues/104), [#457](https://github.com/Open-EO/openeo-python-client/issues/457))
+- Argument `spatial_extent` in `load_collection` supports type `shapely` and loading geometry from a local path.
 
 ### Changed
 
diff --git a/openeo/rest/connection.py b/openeo/rest/connection.py
index 79ee478f8..a1befaa79 100644
--- a/openeo/rest/connection.py
+++ b/openeo/rest/connection.py
@@ -1230,7 +1230,7 @@ def datacube_from_json(self, src: Union[str, Path], parameters: Optional[dict] =
     def load_collection(
         self,
         collection_id: Union[str, Parameter],
-        spatial_extent: Union[Dict[str, float], Parameter, None] = None,
+        spatial_extent: Union[Dict[str, float], Parameter, shapely.geometry.base.BaseGeometry, None] = None,
         temporal_extent: Union[Sequence[InputDate], Parameter, str, None] = None,
         bands: Union[None, List[str], Parameter] = None,
         properties: Union[
@@ -1243,7 +1243,12 @@ def load_collection(
         Load a DataCube by collection id.
 
         :param collection_id: image collection identifier
-        :param spatial_extent: limit data to specified bounding box or polygons
+        :param spatial_extent: limit data to specified bounding box or polygons. Can be provided in different ways:
+            - a shapely geometry
+            - a GeoJSON-style dictionary,
+            - a path (:py:class:`str` or :py:class:`~pathlib.Path`) to a local, client-side GeoJSON file,
+              which will be loaded automatically to get the geometries as GeoJSON construct.
+            - a :py:class:`~openeo.api.process.Parameter` instance.
         :param temporal_extent: limit data to specified temporal interval.
             Typically, just a two-item list or tuple containing start and end date.
             See :ref:`filtering-on-temporal-extent-section` for more details on temporal extent handling and shorthand notation.
diff --git a/openeo/rest/datacube.py b/openeo/rest/datacube.py
index 4a0b26a70..4629c37d5 100644
--- a/openeo/rest/datacube.py
+++ b/openeo/rest/datacube.py
@@ -158,7 +158,12 @@ def load_collection(
         :param collection_id: image collection identifier
         :param connection: The backend connection to use.
             Can be ``None`` to work without connection and collection metadata.
-        :param spatial_extent: limit data to specified bounding box or polygons
+        :param spatial_extent: limit data to specified bounding box or polygons. Can be provided in different ways:
+            - a shapely geometry
+            - a GeoJSON-style dictionary,
+            - a path (:py:class:`str` or :py:class:`~pathlib.Path`) to a local, client-side GeoJSON file,
+              which will be loaded automatically to get the geometries as GeoJSON construct.
+            - a :py:class:`~openeo.api.process.Parameter` instance.
         :param temporal_extent: limit data to specified temporal interval.
             Typically, just a two-item list or tuple containing start and end date.
             See :ref:`filtering-on-temporal-extent-section` for more details on temporal extent handling and shorthand notation.
@@ -188,7 +193,7 @@ def load_collection(
                     f" expected schema with type 'object' but got {spatial_extent.schema!r}."
                 )
         valid_geojson_types = [
-            "Polygon", "MultiPolygon", "GeometryCollection", "FeatureCollection"
+            "Polygon", "MultiPolygon", "Feature", "FeatureCollection"
         ]
         if spatial_extent and not (isinstance(spatial_extent, dict) and spatial_extent.keys() & {"west", "east", "north", "south"}):
             spatial_extent = _get_geometry_argument(argument=spatial_extent,valid_geojson_types=valid_geojson_types,connection=connection)
diff --git a/tests/rest/datacube/test_datacube.py b/tests/rest/datacube/test_datacube.py
index 7e8745109..820f720a4 100644
--- a/tests/rest/datacube/test_datacube.py
+++ b/tests/rest/datacube/test_datacube.py
@@ -149,6 +149,20 @@ def test_load_collection_connectionless_shapely_spatial_extent(self):
             }
         }
 
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("path_factory", [str, pathlib.Path])
+    def test_load_collection_connectionless_local_path_spatial_extent(self, path_factory, test_data):
+        path = path_factory(test_data.get_path("geojson/polygon02.json"))
+        cube = DataCube.load_collection("T3", spatial_extent=path)
+        assert cube.flat_graph() == {
+            "loadcollection1": {
+                "arguments": {"id": "T3", "spatial_extent":
+                    {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[3, 50], [4, 50], [4, 51], [3, 50]]]},
+                     "temporal_extent": None},
+                "process_id": "load_collection",
+                "result": True,
+            }
+        }
+
     def test_load_collection_connectionless_save_result(self):
         cube = DataCube.load_collection("T3").save_result(format="GTiff")
         assert cube.flat_graph() == {