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"They call this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a local guide, the air from his lungs forming clouds of vapor in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have gone missing here, it's thought it's an entrance to a parallel world." Marius is guiding a guest on a evening stroll through commonly known as the globe's spookiest grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient native woodland on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of unusual events here date back centuries – this woodland is called after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a flying saucer suspended above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But rest assured," he adds, turning to the traveler with a smirk. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, shamans, ufologists and paranormal investigators from across the world, curious to experience the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is a top global destinations for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are advancing, and construction companies are campaigning for authorization to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a few hectares home to regionally uncommon Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is lacking legal protection, but the guide believes that the company he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the government officials to acknowledge the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their footwear, the guide recounts various folk tales and claimed supernatural events here.

• One famous story describes a little girl vanishing during a group gathering, only to return after five years with no memory of what had happened, having not aged a moment, her garments shy of the tiniest bit of dirt.
• Frequent accounts explain cellphones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses range from absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals report noticing strange rashes on their skin, hearing unseen murmurs through the woodland, or experience palms pushing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there is much visibly present that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are plants whose stems are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to explain the deformed trees: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radiation levels in the soil cause their strange formation.

But research studies have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's tours allow participants to engage in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the opening in the forest where Barnea took his famous UFO pictures, he passes his guest an electromagnetic field detector which measures EMF readings.

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

The plants immediately cease as we emerge into a complete ring. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this strange clearing is organic, not the result of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a location which fuels fantasy, where the line is blurred between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing creatures, who rise from their graves to haunt nearby villages.

The famous author's famous fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure perched on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – seems solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for factors nuclear, climatic or purely mythical, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius states, "the boundary between fact and fiction is extremely fine."