Maurice de Sully, who became bishop of Paris in 1160, wanted to reconstruct the site where Notre Dame sits, which had been a Romanesque church and pagan temple.

Paris was becoming a political, economic and intellectual center in Europe around that time, and de Sully wanted to mark its progress, Notre Dame~q~s website states.

The cathedral~q~s towers are more than 220 feet tall and the building is more than 400 feet long, according to Notre Dame~q~s website. It~q~s almost 52,000 square feet.

The cathedral was looted and damaged during the French Revolution, which was in part fueled by resentment against the Catholic Church and the rise of Enlightenment thinking.

According to the Napoleon Foundation, the cathedral was renamed "Temple to the Goddess Reason" and at one point served as storage place for wine.

When France and the Catholic Church reconciled in 1801, the cathedral was returned to the church. Napoleon later used it during his coronation, according to the foundation.

Victor Hugo~q~s novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" published in 1831 centers around Quasimodo, the cathedral~q~s bell-ringer, and Esmeralda, a kind and beautiful street dancer.

The novel has been adapted into a number of films, including the popular animated Disney version "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in 1996.

The cathedral~q~s "most precious and most revered object" is the Crown of Thorns, according to France~q~s tourism website. Before Jesus was crucified, Roman soldiers mocked him and stuck a crown made of thorns on his head. However, around the world, others claim to have portions of the crown or single thorns.

A priest wipes the Crown of Thorns, a relic of the passion of Christ at Notre Dame in Paris on April 14, 2017. 

Other important relics in the cathedral include a fragment of the True Cross, believed to be part of the cross on which Jesus was crucified, and one of the Holy Nails, believed to be used in the crucifixion.

In addition to religious relics, masterpiece artworks and sculptures, stained-glass windows and three organs are also housed at Notre Dame, its website says.

Salvage efforts had been underway to recover precious artifacts, and city prosecutors announced they were opening an investigation.

"A special mission has been launched to try to save all works of art that can be saved," Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy to the mayor of Paris, said on French TV.

Notre Dame~q~s roof became home to a hive of bees in 2013, according to the cathedral~q~s website.

The hive was placed as part of a larger effort to protect biodiversity and prevent bee die-off.

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