Notre-Dame de Paris,Paris,France

Notre-Dame de Paris, begun in 1163 and largely complete by the thirteenth century, is a milestone of French Gothic architecture. It pioneered the systematic use of flying buttresses, freeing the walls for vast windows; the twin west towers rise 69 metres and the three rose windows span more than nine metres. The 96-metre flèche added by Viollet-le-Duc in the nineteenth century was lost in the 2019 fire, and the cathedral reopened in December 2024 after restoration - still the summit of Gothic structural daring and sacred space.