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"They call this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," explains an experienced guide, his exhalation producing wisps of vapor in the chilly evening air. "So many individuals have disappeared here, it's thought it's an entrance to a different realm." The guide is leading a traveler on a evening stroll through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient local woods on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Accounts of strange happenings here date back centuries – this woodland is titled for a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a flying saucer suspended above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But don't worry," he continues, turning to the traveler with a smile. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is among the planet's leading hotspots for supernatural fans, this woodland is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, called the Silicon Valley of the region – are expanding, and real estate firms are pushing for approval to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Except for a few hectares containing locally rare specific tree species, the grove is lacking legal protection, but the guide believes that the organization he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, motivating the local administrators to recognise the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius describes numerous folk tales and claimed supernatural events here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family outing, later to rematerialise after five years with complete amnesia of the events, showing no signs of aging a moment, her attire lacking the slightest speck of dust.
• Regular stories detail smartphones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses vary from complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Some people claim observing bizarre skin irritations on their skin, detecting disembodied whispers through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

While many of the stories may be hard to prove, there are many things before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose stems are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to clarify the misshapen plants: 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 inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's walks allow participants to take part in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the meadow in the trees where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO images, he gives the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields.

"We're entering the most active part of the forest," he states. "Try to detect something."

The trees abruptly end as they step into a complete ring. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the work of people.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a place which fuels fantasy, where the border is unclear between fact and folklore. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to haunt local communities.

The famous author's renowned vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – seems tangible and comprehensible versus the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for reasons related to radiation, environmental or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," the guide comments, "the boundary between fact and fiction is very thin."