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"They call this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his exhalation creating clouds of vapor in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Numerous visitors have vanished here, many believe there's a gateway to a parallel world." This expert is leading a traveler on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of unusual events here go back centuries – the grove is called after a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a UFO suspended above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But no need to fear," he adds, addressing the traveler with a smirk. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yogis, shamans, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from worldwide, curious to experience the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be a top global hotspots for supernatural fans, this woodland is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, called the Silicon Valley of the region – are advancing, and real estate firms are advocating for approval to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Except for a limited section housing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is lacking legal protection, but the guide believes that the organization he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their boots, the guide describes some of the folk tales and claimed supernatural events here.

• A popular tale recounts a little girl vanishing during a family picnic, then to reappear after five years with no memory of what had happened, without aging a single day, her attire lacking the slightest speck of dirt.
• Regular stories detail mobile phones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings vary from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Some people state observing unusual marks on their bodies, perceiving ghostly voices through the forest, or experience fingers clutching them, despite being sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the tales may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements clearly observable that is undeniably strange. All around are vegetation whose stems are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been proposed to explain the abnormal growth: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the earth explain their unusual development.

But formal examinations have found inconclusive results.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's tours enable visitors to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the clearing in the trees where Barnea captured his famous UFO pictures, he passes the traveler an EMF meter which measures energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most active section of the forest," he states. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation immediately cease as the group enters into a complete ring. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this unusual opening is wild, not the result of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a area which stirs the imagination, where the division is indistinct between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting vampires, who return from burial sites to frighten regional populations.

Bram Stoker's renowned character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a medieval building located on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "the count's residence".

But including folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – appears solid and predictable versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for causes radioactive, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius comments, "the division between fact and fiction is extremely fine."