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"Locals dub this spot an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, the air from his lungs forming clouds of condensation in the chilly evening air. "Numerous visitors have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to another dimension." Marius is guiding a traveler on a night walk through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient local woods on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of strange happenings here go back a long time – this woodland is called after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a UFO suspended above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But no need to fear," he adds, addressing the traveler with a smirk. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Despite being among the planet's leading hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, called the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are campaigning for approval to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Except for a limited section home to area-specific oak varieties, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide hopes that the organization he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the local administrators to recognise the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their boots, the guide describes numerous local legends and reported ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale describes a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family outing, later to rematerialise five years later with no recollection of the events, having not aged a moment, her attire shy of the slightest speck of soil.
• Regular stories explain smartphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Reactions include complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Some people report observing unusual marks on their arms, hearing disembodied whispers through the forest, or feel fingers clutching them, even when sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the stories may be hard to prove, there are many things before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. All around are plants whose stems are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been proposed to explain the abnormal growth: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the ground cause their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's excursions allow guests to participate in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the meadow in the forest where Barnea photographed his famous UFO pictures, he passes the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures energy patterns.

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

The trees immediately cease as the group enters into a complete ring. The single plant life 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 result of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a place which inspires creativity, where the border is indistinct between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting vampires, who return from burial sites to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's famous character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith situated on a stone formation in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – appears tangible and comprehensible in contrast to these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for reasons radioactive, climatic or entirely legendary, a center for fantasy projection.

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