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"People refer to this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, his exhalation producing puffs of vapor in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have disappeared here, some say it's an entrance to a parallel world." The guide is escorting a guest on a night walk through what is often described as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval native woodland on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of strange happenings here go back a long time – this woodland is called after a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the long ago, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a unidentified flying object hovering above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But rest assured," he continues, turning to the traveler with a smirk. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from across the world, eager to feel the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is among the planet's leading hotspots for supernatural fans, the grove is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are pushing for permission to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Barring a few hectares home to area-specific oak varieties, the grove is not officially protected, but Marius believes that the initiative he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, motivating the local administrators to appreciate the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their boots, the guide describes various folk tales and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family picnic, then to rematerialise five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, having not aged a day, her clothes shy of the smallest trace of soil.
• More common reports describe mobile phones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Reactions vary from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors state observing strange rashes on their arms, detecting disembodied whispers through the trees, or feel palms pushing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the tales may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements visibly present that is undeniably strange. All around are vegetation whose trunks are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to explain the abnormal growth: strong gales could have altered the growth, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the earth account for their crooked growth.

But research studies have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's tours enable guests to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the clearing in the trees where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he gives the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which measures EMF readings.

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

The plants abruptly end as we emerge into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this strange clearing is natural, not the creation of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a location which inspires creativity, where the line is indistinct between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing creatures, who return from burial sites to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's famous vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure situated on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – seems real and understandable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for causes nuclear, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius says, "the line between fact and fiction is very thin."