Cóbreces

Cuprum, 'copper', belongs to the few Latin terms whose geographical origin is transparent: from the Greek Kypros, the island of Cyprus, the principal copper producer of the ancient Mediterranean since the second millennium BC. The Romans called it aes cyprium ('Cyprus bronze') and by simplification cuprum, base of all modern Romance names (cobre, cuivre, copper, Kupfer). The derived suffix -icia / -eces formed collective nouns of mining exploitation: cupricia would mean 'copper mines', 'copper districts'. The Cantabrian range preserves cupriferous veins exploited since the age of metals —⁠the Cóbreces mining deposit, today abandoned, was active in Roman times and was exploited again in the 19th century. The hamlet belongs to the municipality of Alfoz de Lloredo and preserves the Cistercian abbey of Viaceli, founded in 1908 on an old Benedictine monastery. The neo-Gothic parish church of San Pedro Apóstol still dominates the hamlet.