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"Locals dub this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath producing clouds of mist in the chilly evening air. "Numerous people have disappeared here, many believe it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is escorting a guest on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth indigenous forest on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Reports of unusual events here go back a long time – the forest is named after a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a UFO suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But don't worry," he adds, addressing the visitor with a smile. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, shamans, ufologists and supernatural researchers from around the globe, eager to feel the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be a top global hotspots for supernatural fans, the grove is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of the region – are advancing, and real estate firms are advocating for authorization to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Except for a small area home to locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the initiative he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, persuading the authorities to appreciate the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

While branches and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their boots, the guide describes numerous traditional stories and reported ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale tells of a little girl vanishing during a family outing, only to return half a decade later with no recollection of her experience, having not aged a single day, her garments shy of the tiniest bit of dirt.
• More common reports describe mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings include absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Some people claim seeing unusual marks on their skin, perceiving ghostly voices through the trees, or feel hands grabbing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the stories may be impossible to confirm, there are many things before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are plants whose bases are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been given to account for the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radioactivity in the soil account for their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have turned up insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's walks enable visitors to engage in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the meadow in the trees where Barnea captured his well-known UFO images, he passes his guest an ghost-hunting device which registers EMF readings.

"We're entering the most energetic section of the forest," he states. "See what you can find."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a complete ring. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the creation of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a location which stirs the imagination, where the division is indistinct between reality and legend. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing creatures, who return from burial sites to haunt nearby villages.

The novelist's renowned character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith perched on a cliff edge in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – seems tangible and comprehensible in contrast to these eerie woods, which appear to be, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a center for creative energy.

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