The present invention is directed to an on-chip symmetric optical circuit having one or more integrally fabricated polarization rotators forming a monolithic, solid state polarization independent symmetric circuit. The symmetric optical circuit has at least one integrally fabricated rotator positioned in a plane of symmetry of at least one optical fiber, waveguide or circuit path of the symmetric optical circuit. The folded symmetric optical circuit may be for example a Mach-Zehnder type optical circuit or an arrayed waveguide grating optical circuit.