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"They call this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, the air from his lungs creating puffs of condensation in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Numerous people have gone missing here, some say there's a gateway to a parallel world." This expert is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth indigenous forest on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of unusual events here go back hundreds of years – this woodland is named after a area shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a unidentified flying object suspended above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he adds, addressing the traveler with a smirk. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, shamans, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from across the world, eager to feel the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be one of the world's premier destinations for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Except for a small area home to area-specific specific tree species, the grove is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the organization he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, persuading the authorities to acknowledge the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their shoes, the guide recounts various traditional stories and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale describes a little girl disappearing during a group gathering, only to reappear five years later with no memory of her experience, showing no signs of aging a moment, her attire without the slightest speck of dirt.
• Regular stories explain mobile phones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Feelings vary from complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors claim seeing strange rashes on their bodies, hearing unseen murmurs through the trees, or feel fingers clutching them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

While many of the stories may be impossible to confirm, there is much clearly observable that is undeniably strange. All around are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to clarify the deformed trees: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or typically increased radioactivity in the soil account for their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have discovered insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's tours allow participants to participate in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the forest where Barnea captured his renowned UFO images, he gives the visitor an ghost-hunting device which measures EMF readings.

"We're stepping into the most energetic part of the forest," he comments. "Discover what's here."

The trees abruptly end as we emerge into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath our feet; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this unusual opening is wild, not the creation of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a area which fuels fantasy, where the border is unclear between truth and myth. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to frighten nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's famous character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a medieval building located on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – seems real and understandable versus these eerie woods, which appear to be, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the division between reality and imagination is extremely fine."