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"People refer to this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a local guide, his breath forming clouds of vapor in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "Numerous visitors have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to another dimension." This expert is guiding a guest on a night walk through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient indigenous forest on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of bizarre occurrences here date back centuries – this woodland is titled for a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a flying saucer suspended above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But rest assured," he adds, facing the traveler with a grin. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, shamans, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from worldwide, eager to feel the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, described as the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are campaigning for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares containing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is not officially protected, but the guide believes that the organization he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the government officials to recognise the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius recounts some of the traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale describes a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family outing, then to rematerialise five years later with no memory of what had happened, having not aged a moment, her clothes without the tiniest bit of dust.
• More common reports explain mobile phones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses range from absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Some people report seeing strange rashes on their skin, hearing disembodied whispers through the trees, or experience hands grabbing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

While many of the accounts may be unverifiable, there is much visibly present that is definitely bizarre. All around are vegetation whose trunks are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the soil cause their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's tours allow participants to take part in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea took his renowned UFO pictures, he hands his guest an electromagnetic field detector which registers EMF readings.

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

The vegetation abruptly end as the group enters into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this unusual opening is wild, not the creation of people.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a location which stirs the imagination, where the border is unclear between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to haunt nearby villages.

The famous author's famous character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure perched on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – seems real and understandable versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for factors related to radiation, environmental or simply folkloric, a center for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide says, "the division between reality and imagination is very thin."