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"Locals dub this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his exhalation creating clouds of vapor in the crisp night air. "So many visitors have vanished here, some say it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is escorting a traveler on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval local woods on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of strange happenings here extend back centuries – this woodland is titled for a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a unidentified flying object floating above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But no need to fear," he states, turning to his guest with a smile. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, shamans, ufologists and supernatural researchers from around the globe, eager to feel the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be among the planet's leading hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, described as the innovation center of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are pushing for approval to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a few hectares housing regionally uncommon specific tree species, the forest is not officially protected, but the guide hopes that the initiative he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the authorities to appreciate the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide tells various folk tales and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• One famous story describes a young child disappearing during a family picnic, only to rematerialise after five years with no recollection of her experience, without aging a day, her attire without the slightest speck of dust.
• Frequent accounts detail cellphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Feelings include absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals state noticing unusual marks on their arms, hearing ghostly voices through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose trunks are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to explain the abnormal growth: strong gales could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the earth cause their crooked growth.

But research studies have discovered insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

Marius's tours permit participants to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. When nearing the meadow in the forest where Barnea captured his famous UFO pictures, he passes the traveler an ghost-hunting device which detects electromagnetic fields.

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

The plants abruptly end as we emerge into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this strange clearing is wild, not the result of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a place which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's famous fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – feels solid and predictable versus this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for causes nuclear, climatic or purely mythical, a center for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," the guide comments, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is very thin."