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"They call this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath forming wisps of mist in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "So many people have disappeared here, it's thought it's a portal to a parallel world." Marius is escorting a guest on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval local woods on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of unusual events here date back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a flying saucer suspended above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But rest assured," he states, facing the visitor with a smile. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yogis, shamans, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being a top global destinations for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, called the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Except for a limited section containing area-specific specific tree species, the grove is lacking legal protection, but the guide hopes that the initiative he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, motivating the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

While branches and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius describes some of the traditional stories and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account tells of a young child going missing during a group gathering, later to reappear half a decade later with no recollection of what had happened, having not aged a day, her clothes shy of the slightest speck of soil.
• Frequent accounts explain mobile phones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Reactions vary from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors state seeing unusual marks on their arms, perceiving disembodied whispers through the woodland, or experience palms pushing them, although sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the accounts may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose trunks are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to clarify the abnormal growth: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radioactivity in the ground explain their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

Marius's walks permit guests to take part in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the clearing in the woods where Barnea captured his famous UFO photographs, he hands the traveler an ghost-hunting device which detects EMF readings.

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

The trees immediately cease as we emerge into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the short grass beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and seems that this strange clearing is natural, not the result of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a area which stirs the imagination, where the border is unclear between reality and legend. In traditional settlements superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to frighten nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's well-known character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – an ancient structure situated on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – appears real and understandable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for reasons radioactive, environmental or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius says, "the line between reality and imagination is extremely fine."