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"People refer to this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, the air from his lungs creating puffs of vapor in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have gone missing here, many believe it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is escorting a visitor on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval local woods on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of unusual events here go back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the long ago, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a UFO suspended above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But don't worry," he adds, turning to the visitor with a smile. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from worldwide, curious to experience the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be among the planet's leading hotspots for supernatural fans, this woodland is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and construction companies are pushing for authorization to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Barring a limited section home to locally rare specific tree species, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the government officials to recognise the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their shoes, the guide recounts numerous folk tales and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child disappearing during a group gathering, only to return half a decade later with no recollection of her experience, showing no signs of aging a day, her attire lacking the slightest speck of dust.
• More common reports detail cellphones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Reactions range from complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors state noticing unusual marks on their arms, detecting ghostly voices through the forest, or feel hands grabbing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the accounts may be unverifiable, there are many things before my eyes that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are plants whose bases are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been suggested to account for the misshapen plants: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radiation levels in the soil account for their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have discovered insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's tours enable visitors to engage in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the opening in the forest where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he passes the traveler an EMF meter which detects energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most powerful part of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation abruptly end as we emerge into a complete ring. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this strange clearing is natural, not the work of people.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a location which stirs the imagination, where the division is indistinct between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing vampires, who rise from their graves to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's well-known character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith perched on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – seems real and understandable versus the haunted grove, which seem to be, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a center for creative energy.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the division between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."