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"Locals dub this spot an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his exhalation forming wisps of mist in the crisp night air. "Numerous individuals have gone missing here, it's thought there's a gateway to a parallel world." Marius is escorting a guest on a evening stroll through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval native woodland on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of bizarre occurrences here date back centuries – the grove is titled for a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a UFO suspended above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But rest assured," he states, addressing his guest with a smirk. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from worldwide, curious to experience the mysterious powers reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being among the planet's leading hotspots for supernatural fans, this woodland is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of the region – are expanding, and real estate firms are advocating for approval to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Except for a small area housing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is without conservation status, but the guide believes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide tells various folk tales and claimed supernatural events here.

• A popular tale describes a little girl disappearing during a family picnic, later to rematerialise half a decade later with no recollection of the events, having not aged a day, her attire lacking the slightest speck of dust.
• Regular stories explain smartphones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Reactions range from complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Some people report observing strange rashes on their arms, perceiving ghostly voices through the trees, or experience palms pushing them, although sure they are alone.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the stories may be unverifiable, there are many things clearly observable that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose bases are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Different theories have been proposed to account for the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the ground explain their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's tours enable visitors to engage in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the meadow in the forest where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he passes the traveler an EMF meter which measures energy patterns.

"We're stepping into the most active part of the forest," he says. "See what you can find."

The trees immediately cease as they step into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the creation of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a place which stirs the imagination, where the line is blurred between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to frighten nearby villages.

The novelist's well-known fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a medieval building located on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – appears real and understandable versus this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for causes nuclear, environmental or simply folkloric, a center for creative energy.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the boundary between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."