This article analyses the establishment of the "Instituto Nacional de Chile" between 1810 and 1830 as a crucial element of a political and cultural project advanced from an enlightened and republican elite. Its early inception in 1813 resulted from the necessity of consolidating a republican order, as shown by the different projects between 1810 and 1813. During its first years, a revolutionary rhetoric emphasising discontinuities with the colonial past prevailed. Yet, after the consolidation of independence, institutional and intellectual links to the inherited Catholic tradition heavily affected the definite shape of the "Instituto." In this context, the negotiations with the Catholic church and the role played by the moderate Juan Egana explain the fact that the model of republic related to the "Instituto" in its first decades focused on virtue and morality. (Contains 40 footnotes.)