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"They call this spot a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, the air from his lungs creating puffs of condensation in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "Countless individuals have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to another dimension." The guide is guiding a visitor on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval local woods on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here extend back centuries – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a unidentified flying object floating above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he states, facing his guest with a smirk. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from worldwide, eager to feel the mysterious powers reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the innovation center of the region – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Except for a few hectares housing regionally uncommon Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide believes that the company he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the local administrators to appreciate the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their shoes, Marius recounts numerous folk tales and reported supernatural events here.

• One famous story describes a little girl going missing during a family outing, later to rematerialise half a decade later with complete amnesia of the events, having not aged a day, her clothes lacking the smallest trace of soil.
• Regular stories explain mobile phones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings range from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Some people claim seeing unusual marks on their skin, perceiving disembodied whispers through the forest, or sense fingers clutching them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, there are many things clearly observable that is undeniably strange. Throughout the area are trees whose stems are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been given to account for the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's excursions enable visitors to participate in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the meadow in the forest where Barnea took his famous UFO images, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures electromagnetic fields.

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

The plants immediately cease as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and appears that this strange clearing is organic, not the result of people.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a place which stirs the imagination, where the line is unclear between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

The famous author's well-known fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a medieval building located on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – appears solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," the guide states, "the line between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."