They converted again the little mosque at Europa Point into a Christian shrine in honour of Our Lady as Patroness of Europe (Spanish: Ermita de la Virgen de Europa), with devout intention of consecrating to God, through Mary, the whole continent, from a place of prayer and worship at its southernmost point.

[3] They built a large chapel at right angles to the mosque's east wall and the whole area became the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe.

After the French bombing in 1693,[3] the next attack to the shrine took place in August 1704 as the city was captured by a mainly Anglo-Dutch fleet on behalf of the pretender to the Spanish crown, the Archduke Charles.

Part of the troops of Captain Edward Whitaker, who had landed at Rosia Bay, headed to the shrine and captured the women.

They also looted: ... twelve silver lamps, candlesticks, lecterns, crowns, gems and consecrated vessels, the clothes of many families, who had withdrawn there, and when there was nothing else to rob, they broke off the head of the statue which is so venerated in Spain and the child Jesus and threw it among the stones.

However, as the statue was wooden, the remains floated out into the Bay of Gibraltar where they were found by a fisherman, who later delivered them to Juan Romero de Figueroa, the priest in charge at the parish of St. Mary the Crowned.

In the early 1860s, the Vicar Apostolic of Gibraltar, John Baptist Scandella, petitioned for the return of the original statue from Algeciras.

[3][7] As the Shrine of Our Lady of Europe remained in military hands, the statue was provisionally placed in a new chapel erected along Engineer Road.

[3] In 1979 Pope John Paul II officially approved the title of Our Lady of Europe as Patroness of Gibraltar, and subsequently the shrine was restored.

[13] Upon the 700th anniversary of the devotion to Our Lady of Europe, the shrine received the Golden Rose, a rare gift given by the Pope Benedict XVI in May 2009.