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"People refer to this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, his breath creating puffs of vapor in the chilly evening air. "Numerous people have disappeared here, it's thought it's a portal to a different realm." The guide is leading a guest on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of unusual events here extend back hundreds of years – this woodland is called after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a flying saucer floating above a round opening in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But rest assured," he continues, turning to the traveler with a smile. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from around the globe, curious to experience the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be a top global pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, the grove is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, described as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are advancing, and real estate firms are pushing for permission to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Except for a small area containing area-specific specific tree species, the grove is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the initiative he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their boots, the guide describes numerous folk tales and claimed supernatural events here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child going missing during a family picnic, then to return after five years with no recollection of her experience, without aging a day, her clothes shy of the slightest speck of soil.
• More common reports explain mobile phones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Feelings include full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Some people report noticing strange rashes on their skin, detecting unseen murmurs through the woodland, or sense palms pushing them, although sure they are alone.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the stories may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Throughout the area are plants whose stems are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to explain the abnormal growth: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radiation levels in the soil account for their strange formation.

But formal examinations have discovered insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's walks enable guests to engage in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the meadow in the forest where Barnea took his well-known UFO images, he passes the traveler an EMF meter which registers electromagnetic fields.

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

The plants immediately cease as the group enters into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this unusual opening is organic, not the creation of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a place which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between fact and folklore. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise nearby villages.

The novelist's renowned fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – an ancient structure perched on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable compared to this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for causes radioactive, atmospheric or purely mythical, a center for creative energy.

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