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"Locals dub this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, his breath forming clouds of vapor in the cold night air. "Countless visitors have vanished here, many believe it's an entrance to a parallel world." This expert is leading a traveler on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval indigenous forest on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of unusual events here extend back a long time – the forest is titled for a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a flying saucer suspended above a circular clearing in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he continues, addressing the traveler with a grin. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, ufologists and supernatural researchers from around the globe, curious to experience the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are campaigning for permission to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Except for a few hectares containing locally rare specific tree species, the forest is not officially protected, but the guide hopes that the company he co-founded – a dedicated preservation group – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the government officials to appreciate the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their boots, the guide describes various folk tales and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account describes a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family picnic, later to rematerialise five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, having not aged a day, her attire shy of the smallest trace of soil.
• Regular stories detail cellphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Reactions range from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors claim noticing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, hearing unseen murmurs through the woodland, or experience hands grabbing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the stories may be impossible to confirm, there are many things before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are trees whose stems are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to account for the deformed trees: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the soil account for their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have discovered inconclusive results.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's walks enable visitors to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea photographed his famous UFO pictures, he hands his guest an ghost-hunting device which measures energy patterns.

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

The trees suddenly stop dead as they step into a complete ring. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the work of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a location which inspires creativity, where the border is indistinct between truth and myth. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to haunt regional populations.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "the count's residence".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – appears tangible and comprehensible in contrast to these eerie woods, which appear to be, for causes nuclear, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a center for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius comments, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."