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"Locals dub this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," explains a local guide, his exhalation forming wisps of vapor in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Countless visitors have vanished here, many believe there's a gateway to another dimension." This expert is guiding a visitor on a night walk through what is often described as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient native woodland on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of unusual events here date back hundreds of years – the grove is named after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a unidentified flying object floating above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But don't worry," he adds, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, shamans, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from around the globe, eager to feel the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is under threat. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, known as the Silicon Valley of the region – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Barring a small area containing locally rare oak varieties, the forest is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the company he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the authorities to acknowledge the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their footwear, the guide describes some of the traditional stories and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• One famous story recounts a young child going missing during a family outing, later to return five years later with complete amnesia of what had happened, having not aged a day, her clothes without the smallest trace of dirt.
• Regular stories detail mobile phones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses vary from absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals state noticing unusual marks on their bodies, perceiving unseen murmurs through the trees, or sense fingers clutching them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements visibly present that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose bases are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been proposed to account for the abnormal growth: strong gales could have altered the growth, or naturally high radiation levels in the earth account for their unusual development.

But formal examinations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's excursions allow participants to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. When nearing the clearing in the woods where Barnea took his renowned UFO images, he hands the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which detects energy patterns.

"We're stepping into the most active area of the forest," he comments. "See what you can find."

The vegetation abruptly end as they step into a complete ring. The only greenery is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the result of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a area which fuels fantasy, where the division is indistinct between reality and legend. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to frighten regional populations.

The novelist's renowned vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith located on a cliff edge in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable in contrast to the haunted grove, which appear to be, for causes related to radiation, climatic or entirely legendary, a center for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius states, "the boundary between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."