Historian Kenneth Clark told British television viewers that he could not easily define 'civilisation'.
'But,' he said, turning towards Notre Dame cathedral in his 1969 BBC series, 'I think I can recognise it when I see it.'
Possibly the world's most famous church, 'Our Lady of Paris' is an enduring gothic masterpiece, a place of pilgrimage for Roman Catholics from all over the world and symbol of French nationhood. The possibility of its total destruction is as inconceivable as Big Ben tumbling into the Thames.
Standing on a small island in the middle of the Seine, its two huge Gothic towers, unique rose windows, rich sculptural adornments and menacing gargoyles are at the centre of one of the most recognisable urban vistas on the planet.
Construction began in 1163 on the site of an older church – and before that a pagan temple – under the reign of Louis VII, with the foundation stone laid by Pope Alexander III. Thousands of labourers slaved for nearly two centuries until its completion in 1345.
The interior of Notre Dame with its chandeliers illuminated. As the seat of the Archibishop of Paris the cathedral is a major site of Catholic worship
'Appearance to Peter and John' and 'Appearance to the disciples at Emmaus', parts of 'Appearances of the Risen Christ', a chancel screen inside of Notre Dame
A picture taken less than a month ago shows a scaffold during the restoration of Notre Dame de Paris cathedral, in Paris
The building of the cathedral began in the 12th century and the building has survived sackings and Revolution
The nave of the cathedral seen from inside towers above the parishioner past stained glass windows to rib vaulted ceilings
A view of the middle-age stained glass rosace on the southern side of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral
The interior of the cathedral is domed with magnificent 12th century rib vaults and the spire, replaced in the 19th century, weighed 750 tonnes
The reconstruction of the spire, photographed in the 1850s. The original had to be torn down in the late eighteenth century after hundreds of years of damage
Using innovative architectural techniques to assert France's growing status as a European power, its soaring vaulted ceilings, flying buttresses and doors surmounted by a row of figures of Old Testament kings were an expression of royal grandeur.
The building is longer than a football pitch at 427ft, with its largely wooden spire – which collapsed last night – once soaring 300ft into the Parisian sky.
Indeed it is the mode of constructing of the roof structure – entirely in timber, with each beam being made from a single oak tree in a tight lattice – which may be the key to understanding last night's disaster. In all, 5,000 oaks were used in making it.
Among the catalogue of scenes from medieval history that have played out within its sacred confines, Henry VI of England was crowned there in 1431 in the midst of the Hundred Years War, the only English king to be crowned monarch in both nations.
In 1558 Mary Queen of Scots married the French dauphin, Francis II, within its walls, and in 1572 the future Henry IV of France was also married there.
But as well as wonderful scenes of chivalry, the cathedral has also survived its share of misfortune – although, curiously, it had avoided any devastating fire until yesterday's disaster.
In 1548, at the height of the Reformation, rioting Protestant Huguenots damaged some of the statues, considering them idolatrous, and in the 1790s it suffered significant desecration during the French Revolution.
Many of its treasures were looted and the so-called 'sans-culottes' decapitated the heads of 28 statues, thinking they were French kings, not the biblical figures they really represented.
