Catalonia's oldest person, Angelina Torres, dies aged 112

Angelina Torres, Catalonia's oldest person, passed away on Monday at the age of 112 years and nearly eight months.

She was born in Bellvís, in the Pla d'Urgell region of western Catalonia, on March 18, 1913.

Torres was also the oldest living person in Spain and ranked among the 40 oldest people in the world, according to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).

She was the last Catalan born before the start of the First World War.

Torres became the oldest person in Catalonia in August last year, following the death of Maria Branyas, the world’s oldest person at the time, at the age of 117 years and 168 days.

Torres, who moved to Barcelona as a child, witnessed the beginning of the construction of the Sagrada Família, located very close to her home.

"Some workers told me: 'We will build a church that all of Catalonia will be proud of,'" she told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) the day before turning 112.

Torres explained that her longevity could be partly genetic, as her mother lived nearly to 100 and her sisters to 93.

"Doctors have had very little work to do with me," she said.

Catalan president Salvador Illa expressed his condolences to her family.

"I had the privilege of meeting Angelina Torres last year. A wise woman, full of faith and kindness, very hardworking and strong. I will always remember a phrase she said to me that left a deep mark: 'We must help each other, with open hands, never clenched.' As I promised her, so I will do," he wrote on X.

With her passing, the oldest person in Catalonia is now Carme Noguera, born in Olot in 1914.

In Catalonia, the number of people over 100 years old has exceeded 3,000 for the first time in history, according to the latest data from Catalonia's Statistics Institute (Idescat), published last week. Fifty years ago, the figure was just 185.