A comparative study of GaN layer grown by hydride vapour phase epitaxy on A-plane sapphire before and after removal of the substrate is presented. A large anisotropy of the in-plane strain in the as-grown sample is revealed by X-ray diffraction measurements and polarized photoluminescence. The strain anisotropy is found to modify the selection rules for the transitions leading to a splitting of the optically active states of the A and B excitons. Almost complete strain relaxation and recovery of the optical isotropy in the (0001) plane is observed in the free-standing layer.