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"Locals dub this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a tour guide, the air from his lungs forming clouds of condensation in the cold dusk atmosphere. "So many individuals have disappeared here, some say there's a gateway to a parallel world." The guide is guiding a visitor on a night walk through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval local woods on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of unusual events here extend back a long time – this woodland is named after a area shepherd 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 military technician called Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a flying saucer floating above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he continues, addressing the visitor with a grin. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from worldwide, eager to feel the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be one of the world's premier destinations for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, described as the Silicon Valley of the region – are encroaching, and developers are campaigning for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Except for a small area housing area-specific specific tree species, the forest is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the initiative he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, motivating the authorities to recognise the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

As twigs and fall foliage split and rustle beneath their shoes, Marius recounts various folk tales and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale describes a young child disappearing during a family picnic, only to reappear five years later with no memory of her experience, having not aged a day, her attire without the slightest speck of soil.
• More common reports explain mobile phones and camera equipment mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Feelings vary from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Some people report observing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, hearing unseen murmurs through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, although sure they are alone.

Study Attempts

While many of the accounts may be hard to prove, numerous elements clearly observable that is undeniably strange. All around are trees whose bases are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been given to clarify the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radiation levels in the earth explain their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's walks enable visitors to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the trees where Barnea captured his well-known UFO photographs, he hands the visitor an EMF meter which detects energy patterns.

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

The trees abruptly end as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this unusual opening is natural, not the work of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a area which inspires creativity, where the border is indistinct between reality and legend. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting vampires, who rise from their graves to terrorise nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's renowned fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith perched on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – appears real and understandable compared to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," the guide comments, "the boundary between fact and fiction is extremely fine."