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"People refer to this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a local guide, his exhalation creating clouds of vapor in the cold evening air. "Numerous individuals have vanished here, many believe it's a portal to a different realm." Marius is escorting a guest on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient native woodland on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Accounts of unusual events here go back hundreds of years – this woodland is named after a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the long ago, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a unidentified flying object hovering above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he adds, addressing the traveler with a grin. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, shamans, ufologists and supernatural researchers from worldwide, curious to experience the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Despite being a top global hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the tech capital of the region – are expanding, and construction companies are campaigning for approval to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares home to area-specific oak varieties, the forest is not officially protected, but the guide believes that the initiative he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the government officials to appreciate the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their boots, the guide tells numerous traditional stories and reported ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account describes a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family outing, then to return five years later with complete amnesia of the events, showing no signs of aging a moment, her clothes lacking the slightest speck of dirt.
• Frequent accounts explain mobile phones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Feelings vary from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals claim noticing unusual marks on their skin, hearing unseen murmurs through the trees, or experience palms pushing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there is much visibly present that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are trees whose stems are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or naturally high radioactivity in the ground cause their strange formation.

But research studies have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's walks permit visitors to take part in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the forest where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO photographs, he passes his guest an EMF meter which measures electromagnetic fields.

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

The vegetation immediately cease as we emerge into a complete ring. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and seems that this unusual opening is wild, not the result of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a place which fuels fantasy, where the border is indistinct between truth and myth. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering creatures, who rise from their graves to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's famous character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure perched on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – seems real and understandable in contrast to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for causes related to radiation, environmental or purely mythical, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide states, "the line between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."