Here in Cambridge we have some surprises for the visitor. Did you know that there are examples of the swastika in some of Cambridge’s world famous churches and chapels? You would have found the swastika meander on the front elevation of the Old Schools next to the Senate House before it was covered over in recent years. There was nothing sinister about this. It is simply an elaboration of the Greek Fret motif which allows 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 at Westminster College Chapel, King’s College Chapel and the 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 alternate 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 used appropriately. Fylfot-Cruz’ [probably meaning ‘four-footed’] it is generally reserved for that form of Gammadion which has shorter feet and is more often used 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], on church bells, inscribed in stone, and on 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 negative sentiments in general towards this geometric device. It is entirely understandable that this almost universal suspicion has diminished very little, despite widespread positive attitudes in many Eastern and Western cultures.
This church is considered to be one of the few Templar churches in 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 confidently attribute the Round Church to the Templars at Cambridge, an example of a Gammadion in a Templar Church is found at St Michael’s Church, Garway, Herefordshire, probably dating to the late 12th century or the early thirteenth century. In one of the stones of the wall of the South Chapel, a Gammadion has been incised facing left 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 afford the glass, and the first stained glass windows were installed during the 15th-century refurbishment. In January 1644, the Suffolk-born journeyman and professional iconoclast William Dowsing smashed most of these windows and other “superstitious” items thought to be too closely tied to Catholicism. It seems that the windows were subsequently left without colored glass until the middle of the 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. In the four corners of the window, to the left and right of the two circles, there are surrounded swastika shapes. Strictly speaking, these are Fylfot-Crosses rather than Gammadions, since the feet are shorter than the crossed arms and don’t fill the square. Sometimes we find these symbols pointing to the right (conventionally called ‘recto’) and other times to the left (conventionally called ‘verso’). In heraldry they may be oriented in either direction, and we may be sure that no great importance can be attached to either form, despite popular belief to the contrary. The Fylfot-Crosses here all point to the left (‘verso’).
