During the late 1950s, Catholic sectors felt that the Europeist movements would need a Catholic dimension and thought of placing Europe under protection of Our Lady. However, they were unaware that such a devotion was already in existence, albeit at a local level. The movement, supported by the Archbishop of Milan, decided to place a statue in the Italian Dolomites, in the hydrological centre of Europe, since it was the watershed separating the basins of the Rhine, the Danube and the Po.