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"They call this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains an experienced guide, his breath forming puffs of condensation in the cold night air. "So many visitors have gone missing here, some say there's a gateway to a parallel world." Marius is guiding a traveler on a night walk through commonly known as the globe's spookiest grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth native woodland on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of strange happenings here extend back hundreds of years – the forest is named after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a unidentified flying object suspended above a circular clearing in the heart of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But rest assured," he states, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from worldwide, curious to experience the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is among the planet's leading destinations for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of over 400,000 residents, called the innovation center of the region – are encroaching, and construction companies are advocating for authorization to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a small area containing area-specific oak varieties, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the initiative he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their shoes, Marius tells various traditional stories and reported ghostly incidents here.

• One famous story recounts a little girl vanishing during a family picnic, then to rematerialise after five years with no recollection of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a moment, her clothes lacking the tiniest bit of dirt.
• More common reports describe mobile phones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings range from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals report observing strange rashes on their skin, hearing disembodied whispers through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the stories may be hard to prove, there is much clearly observable that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are trees whose stems are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to clarify the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radiation levels in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But research studies have turned up insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's excursions enable visitors to participate in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the meadow in the trees where Barnea captured his renowned UFO images, he passes the visitor an ghost-hunting device which measures EMF readings.

"We're entering the most energetic part of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as they step into a complete ring. The single plant life is the short grass beneath our feet; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this unusual opening is natural, not the result of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a place which inspires creativity, where the division is indistinct between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to frighten local communities.

The novelist's famous character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith located on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – appears solid and predictable in contrast to the haunted grove, which appear to be, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a center for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," Marius says, "the division between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."