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"Locals dub this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, the air from his lungs producing wisps of condensation in the cold dusk atmosphere. "So many people have vanished here, many believe it's a portal to a different realm." The guide is escorting a traveler on a evening stroll through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth indigenous forest on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Stories of bizarre occurrences here go back a long time – the grove is titled for a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a UFO hovering above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But don't worry," he adds, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the innovation center of the region – are advancing, and construction companies are advocating for permission to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a small area containing area-specific specific tree species, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius hopes that the company he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the government officials to recognise the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

While branches and seasonal debris split and rustle beneath their shoes, the guide tells various folk tales and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account describes a five-year-old girl going missing during a group gathering, only to rematerialise five years later with no recollection of the events, having not aged a single day, her garments shy of the smallest trace of dust.
• Regular stories describe mobile phones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Reactions range from absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals state noticing unusual marks on their arms, hearing disembodied whispers through the forest, or feel palms pushing them, although sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, there is much before my eyes that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are trees whose bases are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been suggested to account for the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radioactivity in the ground cause their strange formation.

But research studies have turned up inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's tours allow participants to take part in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the forest where Barnea captured his renowned UFO photographs, he passes his guest an electromagnetic field detector which registers EMF readings.

"We're stepping into the most active area of the forest," he comments. "Try to detect something."

The trees suddenly stop dead as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this unusual opening is natural, not the result of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a area which inspires creativity, where the division is unclear between reality and legend. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to frighten local communities.

The famous author's famous character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure perched on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – seems tangible and comprehensible versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or purely mythical, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide states, "the line between fact and fiction is extremely fine."