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"They call this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his breath forming wisps of condensation in the cold dusk atmosphere. "So many individuals have disappeared here, some say it's a portal to a different realm." Marius is escorting a visitor on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval indigenous forest on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of strange happenings here date back a long time – the grove is titled for a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a flying saucer suspended above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But no need to fear," he states, addressing the visitor with a smile. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from around the globe, interested in encountering the mysterious powers reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are pushing for authorization to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a few hectares home to locally rare oak varieties, the forest is without conservation status, but the guide hopes that the organization he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, persuading the authorities to recognise the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and fall foliage split and rustle beneath their boots, Marius describes various traditional stories and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story recounts a young child vanishing during a family picnic, then to rematerialise five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, having not aged a single day, her clothes lacking the smallest trace of dirt.
• Frequent accounts detail cellphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses include complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Some people state noticing strange rashes on their bodies, detecting unseen murmurs through the trees, or sense fingers clutching them, although sure they are alone.

Study Attempts

Although numerous of the accounts may be unverifiable, there is much clearly observable that is definitely bizarre. Throughout the area are plants whose stems are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been suggested to explain the deformed trees: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radioactivity in the soil cause their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have found insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's tours permit participants to participate in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the trees where Barnea captured his well-known UFO images, he passes his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most powerful part of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something."

The plants abruptly end as we emerge into a complete ring. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this strange clearing is organic, not the creation of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a location which stirs the imagination, where the line is unclear between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing creatures, who rise from their graves to terrorise nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's famous character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure perched on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels real and understandable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for factors radioactive, climatic or entirely legendary, a center for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide comments, "the line between fact and fiction is extremely fine."