Venturing into the Globe's Spookiest Woodland: Twisted Trees, Unidentified Flying Objects and Chilling Accounts in Romania's Legendary Region.

"They call this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, his breath producing wisps of vapor in the cold evening air. "So many people have gone missing here, many believe there's a gateway to another dimension." Marius is escorting a guest on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient indigenous forest on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of strange happenings here date back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the distant past, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu came to global recognition in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a flying saucer suspended above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But rest assured," he continues, facing the visitor with a grin. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from around the globe, eager to feel the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be a top global destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, called the innovation center of the region – are expanding, and real estate firms are pushing for authorization to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Barring a few hectares containing regionally uncommon oak varieties, the forest is without conservation status, but Marius is confident that the company he co-founded – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, persuading the authorities to recognise the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their boots, the guide describes various local legends and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child going missing during a family outing, then to reappear half a decade later with no memory of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire shy of the tiniest bit of dust.
• Frequent accounts describe mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions include absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals claim seeing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, perceiving unseen murmurs through the woodland, or experience hands grabbing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the tales may be hard to prove, there is much before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose bases are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to clarify the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the earth cause their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's walks permit visitors to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the forest where Barnea captured his renowned UFO photographs, he hands the traveler an ghost-hunting device which measures electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most energetic section of the forest," he states. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation abruptly end as they step into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath our feet; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and seems that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the result of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a place which inspires creativity, where the division is indistinct between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise regional populations.

The novelist's renowned vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – feels real and understandable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for causes radioactive, climatic or entirely legendary, a center for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius comments, "the line between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."