No cathedral is more important, to France or to the world. For more than 800 years Notre Dame has stood at the center of French life and has been the setting for historic events both religious and secular. In 1239, King Louis IX, also known as St. Louis, delivered what was purported to be Jesus’ Crown of Thorns to the cathedral. In 1944, as German bullets were still flying outside, Gen. Charles de Gaulle attended a Mass to celebrate the liberation of Paris. Through it all, Notre Dame largely escaped the bombs and blazes that ravaged other cathedrals. An island of stability in a sea of change, it became one of the world’s most visited monuments—as well as a place millions hold sacred.