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"Locals dub this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his exhalation forming wisps of vapor in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have vanished here, it's thought it's an entrance to a different realm." Marius is leading a traveler on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here extend back a long time – this woodland is called after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a unidentified flying object suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But rest assured," he states, addressing his guest with a smirk. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, ufologists and supernatural researchers from around the globe, interested in encountering the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Despite being among the planet's leading destinations for supernatural fans, this woodland is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, called the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are advocating for authorization to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Except for a few hectares housing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is lacking legal protection, but the guide believes that the company he was instrumental in creating – a dedicated preservation group – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to acknowledge the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius describes some of the local legends and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child going missing during a group gathering, then to reappear five years later with no memory of her experience, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire without the slightest speck of dust.
• Frequent accounts explain smartphones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions vary from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals state observing unusual marks on their skin, perceiving ghostly voices through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, even when sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the stories may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are vegetation whose trunks are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been given to explain the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the earth explain their unusual development.

But research studies have found inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's tours permit guests to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO pictures, he gives his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most powerful part of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The trees abruptly end as they step into a complete ring. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the creation of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a location which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between fact and folklore. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting vampires, who emerge from tombs to haunt regional populations.

The novelist's well-known fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a medieval building situated on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – seems solid and predictable compared to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for reasons related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide states, "the line between fact and fiction is very thin."