diff --git a/newsfragments/1578.bugfix.rst b/newsfragments/1578.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..053731deb2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/1578.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Restored reading ``Project-URL`` fields into ``DistributionMetadata.project_urls`` when loading ``PKG-INFO`` metadata.
diff --git a/setuptools/_core_metadata.py b/setuptools/_core_metadata.py
index a52d5cf755..655fe4915e 100644
--- a/setuptools/_core_metadata.py
+++ b/setuptools/_core_metadata.py
@@ -65,6 +65,16 @@ def _read_list_from_msg(msg: Message, field: str) -> list[str] | None:
     return values
 
 
+def _read_project_urls_from_msg(msg: Message) -> dict[str, str]:
+    """Read Message Project-URL fields as a label-to-URL mapping."""
+    project_urls = _read_list_from_msg(msg, 'project-url') or []
+    return dict(
+        (label.strip(), url.strip())
+        for project_url in project_urls
+        for label, _, url in (project_url.partition(','),)
+    )
+
+
 def _read_payload_from_msg(msg: Message) -> str | None:
     value = str(msg.get_payload()).strip()
     if value == 'UNKNOWN' or not value:
@@ -100,6 +110,7 @@ def read_pkg_file(self, file):
 
     self.platforms = _read_list_from_msg(msg, 'platform')
     self.classifiers = _read_list_from_msg(msg, 'classifier')
+    self.project_urls = _read_project_urls_from_msg(msg)
 
     # PEP 314 - these fields only exist in 1.1
     if self.metadata_version == Version('1.1'):
diff --git a/setuptools/tests/test_core_metadata.py b/setuptools/tests/test_core_metadata.py
index 5ec6df3dfe..280904cb9f 100644
--- a/setuptools/tests/test_core_metadata.py
+++ b/setuptools/tests/test_core_metadata.py
@@ -102,12 +102,9 @@ def __read_test_cases():
                 python_requires='>=3.7',
             ),
         ),
-        pytest.param(
+        (
             'Metadata Version 1.2: Project-Url',
             params(project_urls=dict(Foo='https://example.bar')),
-            marks=pytest.mark.xfail(
-                reason="Issue #1578: project_urls not read",
-            ),
         ),
         (
             'Metadata Version 2.1: Long Description Content Type',