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"People refer to this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a tour guide, his exhalation creating wisps of mist in the cold evening air. "So many people have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to another dimension." The guide is leading a guest on a night walk through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth local woods on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Stories of bizarre occurrences here date back centuries – the grove is called after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a unidentified flying object hovering above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But no need to fear," he states, turning to the visitor with a smile. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from around the globe, interested in encountering the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for supernatural fans, the forest is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, described as the tech capital of the region – are advancing, and construction companies are advocating for authorization to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares home to locally rare specific tree species, this woodland is not officially protected, but Marius is confident that the organization he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to acknowledge the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their shoes, Marius tells numerous folk tales and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• One famous story recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family outing, later to rematerialise after five years with complete amnesia of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire shy of the smallest trace of dirt.
• More common reports detail cellphones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings range from absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors state noticing unusual marks on their skin, hearing disembodied whispers through the woodland, or experience fingers clutching them, despite being sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements visibly present that is undeniably strange. All around are vegetation whose stems are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been suggested to account for the abnormal growth: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the soil cause their unusual development.

But research studies have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's walks allow participants to engage in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the meadow in the trees where Barnea captured his renowned UFO pictures, he passes the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most active section of the forest," he says. "Discover what's here."

The trees immediately cease as we emerge into a complete ring. The single plant life is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the result of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a location which fuels fantasy, where the line is blurred between truth and myth. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to terrorise local communities.

The novelist's famous vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building situated on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – feels tangible and comprehensible compared to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for causes nuclear, climatic or entirely legendary, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius says, "the line between reality and imagination is very thin."