On the occasion of the 85 anniversary of his execution, the Universitat de València recovers the symbolism of this picture, entitled ‘La visita imposible de Juan Peset’, created in 2007 by the painter Damián Flores for the tenth anniversary of the Rector Peset Hall of Residence.

The mural, located in one of the arches of the entrance hall, represents Peset on the rooftop of the current Office of the Principal, the rationalist building fostered after the fire of the former Faculty of Sciences at the street of La Nau in 1932. The project was promoted by Peset himself during his governing period, and designed by his brother, the architect Mariano Peset Aleixandre, although he was never able to see it finished.

The work combines realism and oneiric environment. Peset appears holding a copy of Anales de la Universidad de Valencia, the magazine where the speech of the principal in 1937, defending republican democracy was published. That text would turn into one of the evidences used by Francoist regime to put him to death. The work is part of the heritage collections preserved at the Universitat de València.

Joan Baptista Peset Aleixandre (Godella, 1886 – Paterna, 1941) was a doctor, researcher, professor of Legal Medicine, and principal of the Universitat de València between 1932 and 1934. He was also a deputy during the Second Spanish Republic, and one of the most renowned figures of Valencian republicanism. After the Spanish Civil War, he tried to take up exile from the harbour of Alicante, but he was arrested, subjected to two court-martials, and lastly, executed by the Francoist regime.

More than eight decades after his death, the mural of Damián Flores keeps turning the Rector Peset Hall of Residence in a space of democratic memory. Not only does the painting create an impossible scene, but it also represents the image of what the Universitat de València and Valencian society lost because of the execution of their republican principal.