Poem of Almería

The Poem of Almería (Poema de Almería), Prefatio de Almaria (Prefacio de Almería), or Carmen de expugnatione Almariae urbis (Cantar de la conquista de Almería) is a medieval Latin epic poem in 385½ leonine hexameters. It was appended to the end of the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris, an account of the reign of Alfonso VII of León and Castile, and narrates the victorious military campaign of 1147 that culminated in the conquest of the port of Almería. The poem, as it survives, is unfinished, abruptly ending mid-line before recounting the actual siege of Almería itself. Of its surviving lines, 293 consist of "dénombrement épique, a stirring roll-call of the chief members and contingents of the army".

The Poem has aroused interest among scholars and critics for the light it may shed on the origins and development of vernacular epic (the cantares de gesta) and on the nature of Iberian aristocratic and military customs. It has been described as "a relict of incomparable interest for the cultural archaeology of the twelfth century" and "a splendid reflection of its time and, in this regard, full of gold also as literature". Stylistically, the Poem is indebted to the parallelism of the poetry of the Hebrew Bible and to the classical models of Virgil and Ovid.