The imaginary ones, understood like sociocultural constructions that they represent and they transmit ideas and beliefs of the societies through time, took in the Province of Dims during second the local half of century XIX tie characteristics to the modernising pretensions of the authorities and elites. Through the memories of the provincial Intendants and the local press we looked for to verify that imaginary urban the there present ones, based on the progress, the order and the security; they would have helped to form an ideal model of civilized” and controlled city as much “, visible in his physical aspect as in the conducts of his inhabitants. This model, would be simultaneously a strategy to direct the collective behaviors towards a moral based on the discipline, the work and obedience, waited for virtues of a “good citizen” and in agreement with the pretensions of economic growth.Los imaginarios, entendidos como construcciones socioculturales que representan y transmiten ideas y creencias de las sociedades a través del tiempo, tomaron en la provincia de Ñuble durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX características vinculadas a las pretensiones modernizadoras de las autoridades tanto en el aspecto físico como en las conductas de sus habitantes. Dicho modelo sería a la vez una estrategia para encaminar los comportamientos colectivos hacia una moral basada en la disciplina, el trabajo y la obediencia, virtudes esperadas de un “buen ciudadano” y acordes con las pretensiones de crecimiento económico.