Exploring this Globe's Spookiest Grove: Contorted Trees, Flying Saucers and Chilling Accounts in Romania's Legendary Region.

"People refer to this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, his exhalation forming wisps of vapor in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "So many individuals have disappeared here, it's thought there's a gateway to a parallel world." This expert is guiding a traveler on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth indigenous forest on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Accounts of unusual events here extend back hundreds of years – this woodland is named after a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a unidentified flying object suspended above a round opening in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But no need to fear," he states, addressing the traveler with a grin. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, spiritual healers, ufologists and paranormal investigators from worldwide, interested in encountering the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is a top global destinations for supernatural fans, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are advocating for authorization to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Except for a limited section home to locally rare specific tree species, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the initiative he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, encouraging the local administrators to appreciate the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their shoes, the guide tells some of the folk tales and alleged paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale describes a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family outing, only to return five years later with no memory of the events, having not aged a single day, her attire without the smallest trace of dirt.
• Frequent accounts detail mobile phones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Feelings range from complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals claim noticing unusual marks on their arms, detecting disembodied whispers through the woodland, or sense fingers clutching them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Although numerous of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there are many things clearly observable that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose bases are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been proposed to clarify the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the earth explain their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have discovered inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's excursions allow guests to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the meadow in the trees where Barnea took his famous UFO photographs, he passes his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects energy patterns.

"We're stepping into the most powerful part of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The trees abruptly end as we emerge into a complete ring. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and appears that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the result of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a place which fuels fantasy, where the border is unclear between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing vampires, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building located on a cliff edge in the mountain range – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – feels real and understandable in contrast to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for reasons nuclear, atmospheric or purely mythical, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," Marius says, "the division between reality and imagination is extremely fine."