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"They call this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, his exhalation forming clouds of vapor in the cold night air. "Countless people have gone missing here, some say there's a gateway to another dimension." This expert is escorting a traveler on a night walk through what is often described as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient local woods on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of strange happenings here date back hundreds of years – the forest is named after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a UFO hovering above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But don't worry," he states, facing the visitor with a smile. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, shamans, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from around the globe, curious to experience the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are campaigning for permission to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Except for a few hectares housing locally rare specific tree species, the forest is lacking legal protection, but the guide believes that the company he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will assist in altering this, motivating the authorities to acknowledge the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

As twigs and fall foliage split and rustle beneath their footwear, Marius recounts various folk tales and reported supernatural events here.

• A well-known account tells of a young child vanishing during a family outing, later to rematerialise half a decade later with complete amnesia of her experience, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire without the tiniest bit of soil.
• Regular stories describe mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses vary from complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Some people state noticing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, perceiving disembodied whispers through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the accounts may be hard to prove, there is much visibly present that is certainly unusual. All around are trees whose trunks are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been given to account for the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the soil cause their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's tours enable guests to take part in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the meadow in the woods where Barnea captured his well-known UFO photographs, he hands the visitor an EMF meter which measures energy patterns.

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

The plants immediately cease as we emerge into a flawless round. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and appears that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the work of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a area which inspires creativity, where the division is blurred between truth and myth. In traditional settlements superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

The novelist's renowned character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure situated on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – appears solid and predictable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for factors related to radiation, environmental or entirely legendary, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," the guide says, "the line between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."