Alfonso III, known as the Benign for having been a wise, reasonable and benevolent man, is the only king of the Crown of Aragon whose remains lie in the Seu Vella. In medieval times most monarchs preferred to be buried in the Cistercian monasteries of Poblet and Santes Creus.

Born in Naples in 1299, Alfonso III the Benign was the second son of James II the Just and Blanche of Naples. During his father’s reign he was at the head of the Catalan expedition that conquered Sardinia between 1323 and 1324. Shortly afterwards, in 1327, he acceded to the throne. His reign was short, only nine years, as he died in Barcelona of malaria at the age of 37.

In the year of his death, 1336, he was buried in the Franciscan convent in the city. Years later, his son, king Peter III the Ceremonious, ordered the remains to be transferred to the convent of the Franciscans of Lleida, thus fulfilling the wishes his father had left in his will. With the outbreak of the Reapers’ War in 1640, however, the convent was ransacked and his remains were scattered over the ground. They were then transferred to the Seu Vella (1646), later to the church of Sant Llorenç (1773), and finally to the Seu Nova (1781),  they remained here until 1986 when, with the support of local institutions, the Association of Friends of the Seu Vella promoted the return of the king’s remains to the cathedral, considering the Seu Vella as the ideal place, since the king had first married Teresa d’Entença there.

In addition to the remains of the king, the ossuary, of modern construction and supported by two corbels in the form of lions, also contains those of his second wife, Elionor of Castile, and those of the infante Ferdinand.