Here in Cambridge we have some surprises for the visitor. Did you know that there are examples of the swastika on some of Cambridge’s world famous churches and chapels? You would have found the swastika meander on the Old Schools front elevation next to Senate House before it was covered over in recent years. There was nothing sinister in this. It is simply an elaboration of the Greek Fret motif allowing the development of the ‘Swastika’ to appear within the design.

It is found almost everywhere in the world as a decorative motif. It was often found in synagogues, churches, and mosques from the earliest days of these religious movements. Other examples may have a more symbolic meaning. Here in Cambridge we can find examples in Westminster College Chapel, King’s College Chapel and Round Church. In this article we will focus mainly on the Round Church, or to give it its full name: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

There are alternative terms we can use for this geometric device popularly known as the swastika. In stained glass as in heraldry, terms like Gammadion and Fylfot-Cross may be appropriately used. Fylfot-Cross’ [probably meaning ‘four-footed’] it is generally reserved for that form of Gammadion which has shorter feet and is used more often in heraldry.

the round church

Many visitors will be surprised to find Fylfot-Crosses here in the Round Church. However, Fylfot-Cross or Gammadion is found in a wide range of ecclesiastical settings. These devices have been used in both decorative and symbolic contexts; it has been used in fountains, in silver, in Gospel books, in monumental fathoms [depicting clergy in mass vestments], in church bells, inscribed in stone, and in stained glass. Thus the examples found here were commissioned long before the rise of any of those German volkisch nationalist groups that would later give rise to generally negative feelings towards this geometric device. It is entirely understandable that there has been little abating of this almost universal suspicion, despite widespread positive attitudes in many Eastern and Western cultures.

This church is considered to be one of the few Templar churches in Great Britain. It was clearly inspired by the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, so its link to the Crusades is undeniable. However, there are some doubts that it was a Templar church due to its presumed early dating.

Whether or not we can safely attribute the Round Church to the Templars in Cambridge, an example of a Gammadion in a Templar Church is in St Michael’s Church, Garway, Herefordshire, probably dating from the late 12th century or the early thirteenth century. On one of the stones of the wall of the South Chapel, a Gammadion facing left has been incised together with a Crossed Cross -in a position corresponding to that of the pool inside the chapel, with its accumulation of symbolic elements- with identifiable links with the Eucharist

The Fylfot Crosses in the Baptism window

The fraternity that built the original Norman structure was almost certainly too poor to pay for the glass, and the first stained glass windows were installed during the 15th-century refurbishment. In January 1644, the Suffolk-born professional and official iconoclast William Dowsing smashed most of these windows and other “superstitious” items deemed too closely linked to Catholicism. It appears that the windows were subsequently left without colored glass until the mid-19th century. The stained glass windows currently in the Round Church date from 1841, as part of a restoration project organized by the Camden Society.

The window with the baptism scene is located immediately to the right of the entrance. At the four corners of the window, to the left and right of the two circles, are encircled swastika shapes. Strictly speaking these are Fylfot-Crosses rather than Gammadions, as the feet are shorter than the crossed arms and do not fill the square. Sometimes we find these symbols pointing to the right (conventionally called ‘recto’) and sometimes to the left (conventionally called ‘verso’). In heraldry, they can be oriented in either direction, and we can be sure that no great importance can be attached to either shape, despite popular belief to the contrary. The Fylfot-Crosses here all point to the left (‘verso’).