What object falls from the sky at the start of Horace Walpole's 'The Castle of Otranto'?

At the start of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, a giant helmet falls from the sky and crushes Conrad.

Conrad is the sickly fifteen-year-old son of Manfred, the lord of Otranto, and is about to marry Isabella when the supernatural object descends into the castle courtyard. His death immediately turns a wedding celebration into a crisis and sets the novel’s central prophecy in motion.

The helmet is not an ordinary piece of armor. It is an enormous version of the helmet belonging to a gigantic armored figure associated with the castle’s past. Its appearance signals that Manfred’s family does not rightfully possess Otranto and that the ancient prophecy about the castle changing hands is beginning to come true.

This spectacular opening helped make the novel a landmark of Gothic fiction. Walpole published it in 1764, initially presenting it as a translated medieval manuscript before acknowledging himself as the author in the second edition. The falling helmet is therefore a deliberate blend of medieval romance, supernatural terror, and theatrical absurdity—not a stone head, sword, or conventional suit of armor.