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"People refer to this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, the air from his lungs creating wisps of vapor in the chilly evening air. "Countless people have vanished here, it's thought it's a portal to another dimension." Marius is escorting a traveler on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Reports of unusual events here extend back a long time – the forest is called after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a UFO hovering above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But don't worry," he continues, facing the traveler with a smirk. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, shamans, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from around the globe, curious to experience the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being a top global hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and construction companies are pushing for authorization to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Except for a few hectares housing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is without conservation status, but the guide is confident that the organization he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the authorities to acknowledge the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius tells numerous folk tales and reported paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story describes a little girl disappearing during a family outing, later to return five years later with complete amnesia of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her clothes lacking the slightest speck of dirt.
• Regular stories describe mobile phones and camera equipment unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses vary from absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals claim noticing unusual marks on their skin, perceiving disembodied whispers through the woodland, or experience palms pushing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements visibly present that is definitely bizarre. All around are plants whose stems are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Different theories have been given to account for the misshapen plants: strong gales could have altered the growth, or naturally high radioactivity in the earth cause their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have discovered insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

Marius's tours enable guests to engage in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea captured his famous UFO photographs, he hands his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects EMF readings.

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

The trees abruptly end as we emerge into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath our feet; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the result of people.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a place which fuels fantasy, where the division is indistinct between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise local communities.

The famous author's renowned fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith perched on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – appears solid and predictable versus these eerie woods, which seem to be, for factors related to radiation, climatic or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the division between truth and fantasy is very thin."