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"They call this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, his breath forming clouds of vapor in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Countless individuals have disappeared here, many believe it's an entrance to a parallel world." Marius is leading a visitor on a night walk through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient native woodland on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of unusual events here extend back centuries – this woodland is called after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a flying saucer suspended above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But no need to fear," he continues, addressing the visitor with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from across the world, eager to feel the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being a top global hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, known as the innovation center of the region – are encroaching, and real estate firms are campaigning for authorization to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a small area housing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, persuading the authorities to appreciate the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and seasonal debris split and rustle beneath their footwear, Marius describes various local legends and reported supernatural events here.

• One famous story recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family outing, later to rematerialise half a decade later with no recollection of the events, without aging a moment, her garments lacking the slightest speck of dirt.
• More common reports detail mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Feelings include full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals report seeing strange rashes on their arms, detecting ghostly voices through the trees, or feel palms pushing them, despite being sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

While many of the tales may be hard to prove, there are many things visibly present that is undeniably strange. Throughout the area are plants whose stems are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the ground account for their strange formation.

But formal examinations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's walks permit visitors to engage in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the clearing in the forest where Barnea captured his renowned UFO images, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields.

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

The vegetation abruptly end as we emerge into a flawless round. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and looks that this unusual opening is organic, not the creation of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a area which stirs the imagination, where the line is blurred between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to haunt nearby villages.

The novelist's well-known vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building perched on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – feels tangible and comprehensible in contrast to the haunted grove, which appear to be, for factors radioactive, environmental or entirely legendary, a center for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the boundary between fact and fiction is very thin."