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"People refer to this spot a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, his exhalation creating wisps of condensation in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "So many people have vanished here, many believe it's a portal to a different realm." This expert is escorting a visitor on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient indigenous forest on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of strange happenings here extend back centuries – this woodland is called after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a UFO hovering above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But no need to fear," he continues, facing the visitor with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, shamans, ufologists and paranormal investigators from around the globe, eager to feel the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is a top global hotspots for supernatural fans, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are pushing for approval to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Barring a few hectares housing regionally uncommon oak varieties, the grove is not officially protected, but the guide hopes that the initiative he co-founded – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, persuading the authorities to appreciate the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius tells numerous folk tales and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale describes a little girl going missing during a family picnic, later to reappear after five years with no recollection of the events, without aging a day, her attire shy of the tiniest bit of soil.
• Regular stories describe mobile phones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses vary from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors claim noticing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, detecting ghostly voices through the woodland, or sense palms pushing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the accounts may be unverifiable, there are many things visibly present that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are plants whose bases are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radioactivity in the earth account for their unusual development.

But research studies have discovered inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's excursions allow visitors to engage in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the trees where Barnea captured his famous UFO pictures, he hands the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures energy patterns.

"We're stepping into the most powerful section of the forest," he comments. "Try to detect something."

The plants immediately cease as we emerge into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and seems that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the work of human hands.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a place which fuels fantasy, where the division is indistinct between reality and legend. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing creatures, who return from burial sites to frighten nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's well-known vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure perched on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – feels real and understandable compared to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for causes radioactive, atmospheric or purely mythical, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," the guide says, "the division between fact and fiction is very thin."