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"Locals dub this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath creating clouds of vapor in the crisp evening air. "Numerous visitors have gone missing here, many believe it's a portal to a parallel world." This expert is leading a visitor on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval local woods on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of strange happenings here extend back hundreds of years – this woodland is called after a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a unidentified flying object suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he states, turning to his guest with a smile. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, ufologists and supernatural researchers from around the globe, eager to feel the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for supernatural fans, the grove is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the innovation center of the region – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for authorization to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Except for a small area containing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but the guide hopes that the initiative he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the government officials to recognise the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and fall foliage split and rustle beneath their boots, the guide describes numerous traditional stories and alleged supernatural events here.

• A well-known account describes a young child going missing during a group gathering, later to rematerialise half a decade later with no recollection of her experience, having not aged a moment, her attire without the smallest trace of soil.
• Regular stories describe smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Feelings include full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals claim observing unusual marks on their bodies, perceiving ghostly voices through the woodland, or sense hands grabbing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

While many of the stories may be hard to prove, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose trunks are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Different theories have been proposed to account for the abnormal growth: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the soil cause their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's excursions allow guests to participate in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the meadow in the trees where Barnea captured his well-known UFO images, he hands the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which measures energy patterns.

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

The trees abruptly end as we emerge into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and seems that this unusual opening is organic, not the creation of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a location which fuels fantasy, where the division is unclear between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting creatures, who return from burial sites to frighten regional populations.

The famous author's well-known vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a medieval building located on a cliff edge in the mountain range – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – appears tangible and comprehensible compared to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for factors related to radiation, climatic or purely mythical, a center for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius comments, "the division between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."