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"They call this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, the air from his lungs creating puffs of vapor in the cold evening air. "So many people have disappeared here, it's thought there's a gateway to another dimension." This expert is guiding a visitor on a night walk through what is often described as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth local woods on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Accounts of strange happenings here extend back a long time – the grove is titled for a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when an army specialist known as Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a flying saucer suspended above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But rest assured," he adds, facing the traveler with a grin. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from across the world, curious to experience the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be a top global pilgrimage sites for supernatural fans, the forest is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of over 400,000 residents, described as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are advocating for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a small area containing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the local administrators to appreciate the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their footwear, the guide describes various folk tales and alleged paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account describes a young child vanishing during a group gathering, later to return five years later with no recollection of the events, without aging a moment, her attire without the slightest speck of dirt.
• Frequent accounts explain mobile phones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Feelings range from complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors state observing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, detecting disembodied whispers through the forest, or sense palms pushing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

While many of the tales may be unverifiable, numerous elements visibly present that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are vegetation whose trunks are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Different theories have been suggested to explain the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the soil account for their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's walks allow participants to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the opening in the trees where Barnea took his well-known UFO photographs, he gives his guest an EMF meter which measures EMF readings.

"We're venturing into the most energetic section of the forest," he says. "Discover what's here."

The plants immediately cease as the group enters into a complete ring. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this strange clearing is wild, not the creation of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a place which fuels fantasy, where the division is indistinct between fact and folklore. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering vampires, who rise from their graves to haunt nearby villages.

The novelist's well-known fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building situated on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – appears real and understandable versus this spooky forest, which seem to be, for factors related to radiation, climatic or entirely legendary, a center for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide comments, "the line between fact and fiction is extremely fine."