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"People refer to this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, his breath producing puffs of condensation in the chilly evening air. "Countless visitors have vanished here, it's thought it's a portal to another dimension." This expert is leading a traveler on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth local woods on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Reports of bizarre occurrences here go back centuries – the forest is called after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a UFO floating above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But no need to fear," he states, addressing the visitor with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from around the globe, eager to feel the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is among the planet's leading hotspots for supernatural fans, this woodland is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, called the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and developers are pushing for approval to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares home to area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but the guide is confident that the initiative he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, persuading the government officials to recognise the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their footwear, the guide tells some of the local legends and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a group gathering, then to reappear half a decade later with no recollection of the events, without aging a day, her clothes lacking the smallest trace of soil.
• Regular stories describe cellphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Feelings include full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals state observing bizarre skin irritations on their skin, hearing ghostly voices through the trees, or experience palms pushing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the stories may be impossible to confirm, there is much visibly present that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are plants whose trunks are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radioactivity in the earth cause their unusual development.

But research studies have turned up inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's tours permit visitors to engage in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the trees where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO images, he hands the traveler an EMF meter which detects EMF readings.

"We're venturing into the most energetic area of the forest," he comments. "See what you can find."

The trees suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath our feet; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this unusual opening is wild, not the work of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a area which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to haunt nearby villages.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith situated on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – feels solid and predictable compared to these eerie woods, which appear to be, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or purely mythical, a center for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide comments, "the division between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."