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"Locals dub this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, the air from his lungs producing clouds of condensation in the chilly night air. "Countless people have vanished here, some say there's a gateway to a different realm." This expert is escorting a visitor on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth local woods on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here date back a long time – the forest is named after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a UFO suspended above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he adds, addressing the traveler with a smile. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from worldwide, curious to experience the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is under threat. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the innovation center of eastern Europe – are advancing, and construction companies are advocating for approval to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Except for a few hectares housing locally rare specific tree species, the forest is without conservation status, but Marius believes that the organization he co-founded – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, motivating the government officials to acknowledge the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius tells numerous folk tales and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl disappearing during a group gathering, then to return after five years with complete amnesia of the events, having not aged a day, her garments shy of the slightest speck of dirt.
• Frequent accounts detail cellphones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses vary from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Some people report seeing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, detecting disembodied whispers through the forest, or feel fingers clutching them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Although numerous of the stories may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements visibly present that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose bases are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or typically increased radioactivity in the earth cause their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

Marius's tours allow guests to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the meadow in the woods where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO images, he hands the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most energetic part of the forest," he says. "See what you can find."

The plants suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the creation of human hands.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a location which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between reality and legend. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting creatures, who return from burial sites to haunt regional populations.

The famous author's famous character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building located on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – seems tangible and comprehensible in contrast to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a center for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius comments, "the division between fact and fiction is extremely fine."