The electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) of the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider is a hermetic, fine grained, homogeneous calorimeter containing 75848 lead tungstate crystals, completed by a silicon preshower installed in front of the endcaps. The main characteristics of the ECAL are reviewed. These include the challenges of calibration and triggering in the LHC environment, as well as the reconstruction and identification of photons and electrons. Several results achieved by the CMS experiment particularly exploit the ECAL excellent performance, here illustrated with reference to specific examples, comprising the Higgs boson search and characterization in the H arrow right gamma gamma and H arrow right ZZ super((*)) decay channels and the search for non-standard phenomena such as high-mass gauge bosons decaying into electrons and long-lived particles with delayed signals in the calorimeter.