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"Locals dub this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a local guide, his exhalation producing wisps of vapor in the cold night air. "Countless visitors have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to another dimension." This expert is escorting a traveler on a night walk through what is often described as the globe's spookiest grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth indigenous forest on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Reports of unusual events here extend back a long time – the grove is named after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a flying saucer floating above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But no need to fear," he continues, addressing his guest with a smile. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yogis, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from around the globe, eager to feel the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is one of the world's premier hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is under threat. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, known as the tech capital of the region – are advancing, and real estate firms are advocating for authorization to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Except for a limited section containing regionally uncommon specific tree species, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the organization he co-founded – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, encouraging the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their shoes, the guide tells various folk tales and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family picnic, later to rematerialise five years later with no recollection of her experience, showing no signs of aging a single day, her clothes without the tiniest bit of dirt.
• More common reports describe mobile phones and camera equipment mysteriously turning off on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses vary from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Some people claim seeing strange rashes on their arms, perceiving disembodied whispers through the trees, or sense fingers clutching them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the accounts may be unverifiable, there are many things before my eyes that is undeniably strange. Throughout the area are plants whose stems are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been suggested to account for the misshapen plants: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the ground account for their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's tours allow visitors to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the forest where Barnea took his well-known UFO images, he hands his guest an electromagnetic field detector which registers EMF readings.

"We're venturing into the most powerful part of the forest," he comments. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation immediately cease as we emerge into a flawless round. The only greenery is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this unusual opening is wild, not the result of human hands.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a location which inspires creativity, where the line is indistinct between fact and folklore. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to frighten local communities.

Bram Stoker's renowned vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith perched on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But including folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – feels solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which appear to be, for causes radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," the guide comments, "the boundary between reality and imagination is very thin."