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"They call this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, his exhalation producing wisps of vapor in the cold night air. "So many individuals have disappeared here, some say there's a gateway to a different realm." This expert is escorting a traveler on a night walk through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval indigenous forest on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of bizarre occurrences here date back a long time – the forest is named after a area shepherd 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 called Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a unidentified flying object suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he continues, turning to the visitor with a smile. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from worldwide, eager to feel the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be one of the world's premier hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, called the tech capital of the region – are advancing, and construction companies are campaigning for approval to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a few hectares housing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is not officially protected, but Marius believes that the initiative he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the authorities to acknowledge the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius tells numerous folk tales and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family picnic, later to rematerialise five years later with no memory of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire without the slightest speck of soil.
• Frequent accounts describe cellphones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Reactions range from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors state seeing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, perceiving ghostly voices through the trees, or feel hands grabbing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

While many of the tales may be hard to prove, there are many things visibly present that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose trunks are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or typically increased radioactivity in the earth cause their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's excursions enable guests to take part in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the forest where Barnea captured his renowned UFO photographs, he gives his guest an ghost-hunting device which detects EMF readings.

"We're stepping into the most active area of the forest," he comments. "See what you can find."

The vegetation immediately cease as we emerge into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the short grass beneath the ground; it's clear that it's not maintained, and seems that this strange clearing is organic, not the work of people.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a place which stirs the imagination, where the border is unclear between truth and myth. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise local communities.

Bram Stoker's renowned character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – feels tangible and comprehensible versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for reasons related to radiation, environmental or entirely legendary, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide says, "the division between truth and fantasy is very thin."