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"Locals dub this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, the air from his lungs creating wisps of condensation in the cold night air. "Countless individuals have gone missing here, it's thought it's an entrance to a parallel world." Marius is leading a guest on a night walk through commonly known as the globe's spookiest grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient indigenous forest on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Reports of strange happenings here go back centuries – the forest is titled for a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the long ago, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a unidentified flying object floating above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But don't worry," he adds, facing his guest with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, spiritual healers, ufologists and supernatural researchers from around the globe, eager to feel the mysterious powers reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be one of the world's premier hotspots for supernatural fans, the grove is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, called the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and construction companies are advocating for approval to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares containing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is not officially protected, but the guide is confident that the organization he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the local administrators to appreciate the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their boots, the guide tells some of the local legends and reported ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale recounts a five-year-old girl going missing during a group gathering, later to reappear after five years with no memory of her experience, without aging a moment, her garments without the tiniest bit of dirt.
• More common reports explain mobile phones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses include full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors state observing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, hearing ghostly voices through the trees, or experience palms pushing them, although sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the tales may be unverifiable, there is much clearly observable that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are trees whose stems are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been suggested to account for the abnormal growth: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radiation levels in the soil account for their crooked growth.

But research studies have discovered inconclusive results.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's walks permit visitors to take part in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the meadow in the forest where Barnea took his famous UFO images, he passes his guest an ghost-hunting device which registers energy patterns.

"We're entering the most active section of the forest," he states. "See what you can find."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a complete ring. The single plant life is the short grass beneath our feet; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the result of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a area which stirs the imagination, where the border is unclear between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting vampires, who rise from their graves to frighten local communities.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith situated on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "the count's residence".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – appears solid and predictable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for reasons nuclear, climatic or purely mythical, a center for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius states, "the line between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."