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"They call this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his breath creating clouds of vapor in the crisp evening air. "Numerous visitors have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to a different realm." Marius is escorting a guest on a evening stroll through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient indigenous forest on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of strange happenings here go back hundreds of years – the grove is titled for a area shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist known as Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a unidentified flying object hovering above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But don't worry," he adds, turning to the traveler with a smile. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, shamans, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies said to echo 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 – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the tech capital of the region – are advancing, and real estate firms are pushing for authorization to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Except for a limited section home to locally rare specific tree species, the grove is without conservation status, but the guide hopes that the company he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, encouraging the local administrators to appreciate the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius describes some of the local legends and alleged supernatural events here.

• One famous story describes a little girl vanishing during a family outing, only to reappear half a decade later with complete amnesia of what had happened, having not aged a single day, her attire shy of the slightest speck of dust.
• More common reports explain cellphones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Feelings include absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals claim seeing strange rashes on their skin, hearing unseen murmurs through the trees, or sense palms pushing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the stories may be unverifiable, numerous elements visibly present that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are plants whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been proposed to account for the deformed trees: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the earth account for their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have found insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's excursions permit guests to take part in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the clearing in the forest where Barnea captured his famous UFO photographs, he passes the visitor an EMF meter which detects energy patterns.

"We're entering the most active area of the forest," he comments. "Discover what's here."

The plants suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the work of human hands.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a place which stirs the imagination, where the division is indistinct between fact and folklore. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to frighten local communities.

The famous author's renowned fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – feels solid and predictable in contrast to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for factors radioactive, climatic or entirely legendary, a hub for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide states, "the boundary between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."