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"Locals dub this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a local guide, his exhalation forming puffs of condensation in the cold evening air. "So many people have vanished here, it's thought it's an entrance to another dimension." The guide is escorting a guest on a night walk through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth local woods on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of strange happenings here go back hundreds of years – this woodland is called after a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the distant past, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a unidentified flying object floating above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he adds, addressing his guest with a grin. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, ufologists and ghost hunters from across the world, interested in encountering the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is a top global pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, known as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Barring a small area housing locally rare oak varieties, the grove is not officially protected, but the guide is confident that the organization he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, encouraging the government officials to appreciate the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their boots, the guide recounts some of the local legends and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story tells of a young child going missing during a group gathering, then to return five years later with no memory of the events, without aging a single day, her attire lacking the smallest trace of dirt.
• More common reports describe cellphones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions include complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals claim noticing strange rashes on their arms, hearing ghostly voices through the woodland, or feel hands grabbing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the stories may be hard to prove, numerous elements clearly observable that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are plants whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been suggested to explain the misshapen plants: strong gales could have altered the growth, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the earth account for their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's tours allow visitors to engage in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea captured his renowned UFO images, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which detects energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most powerful part of the forest," he states. "See what you can find."

The plants suddenly stop dead as they step into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's clear that it's not maintained, and appears that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the creation of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a area which fuels fantasy, where the division is indistinct between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, shapeshifting vampires, who return from burial sites to haunt nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's renowned character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – appears solid and predictable versus the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for reasons related to radiation, environmental or entirely legendary, a center for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius states, "the division between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."