Exploring this Globe's Spookiest Woodland: Gnarled Trees, Flying Saucers and Spooky Stories in Transylvania.

"People refer to this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, the air from his lungs forming puffs of condensation in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "So many individuals have gone missing here, it's thought there's a gateway to a parallel world." This expert is escorting a visitor on a evening stroll through commonly known as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth local woods on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here go back a long time – this woodland is titled for a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a flying saucer hovering above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he states, facing his guest with a grin. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yogis, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from across the world, curious to experience the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being a top global pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of the region – are expanding, and developers are advocating for approval to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Barring a small area home to locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is without conservation status, but the guide is confident that the initiative he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius recounts various folk tales and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account describes a young child disappearing during a family picnic, only to rematerialise half a decade later with complete amnesia of the events, having not aged a day, her attire lacking the smallest trace of soil.
• More common reports explain mobile phones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Feelings range from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors claim seeing unusual marks on their arms, perceiving ghostly voices through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there are many things visibly present that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose bases are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been proposed to account for the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or naturally high radiation levels in the earth explain their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

Marius's excursions allow visitors to participate in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the forest where Barnea captured his famous UFO photographs, he hands his guest an EMF meter which detects electromagnetic fields.

"We're entering the most powerful section of the forest," he comments. "Discover what's here."

The trees abruptly end as the group enters into a complete ring. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the work of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a place which inspires creativity, where the division is unclear between reality and legend. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing vampires, who rise from their graves to terrorise local communities.

The novelist's well-known fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – seems tangible and comprehensible in contrast to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for causes nuclear, climatic or purely mythical, a center for fantasy projection.

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