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"Locals dub this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a local guide, his breath forming puffs of mist in the crisp evening air. "Numerous people have gone missing here, many believe there's a gateway to another dimension." This expert is escorting a guest on a night walk through what is often described as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval indigenous forest on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of strange happenings here date back hundreds of years – the grove is called after a area shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film 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 no need to fear," he continues, turning to the traveler with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, shamans, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from across the world, curious to experience the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be one of the world's premier hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, called the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are advocating for approval to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Except for a few hectares home to area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but Marius is confident that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a dedicated preservation group – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the authorities to recognise the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius tells various traditional stories and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child going missing during a family outing, then to rematerialise after five years with complete amnesia of what had happened, having not aged a single day, her attire lacking the smallest trace of soil.
• Regular stories detail mobile phones and camera equipment mysteriously turning off on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions include complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Some people state noticing unusual marks on their skin, hearing disembodied whispers through the woodland, or feel palms pushing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the tales may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements clearly observable that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose bases are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been proposed to explain the misshapen plants: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have found inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's walks allow participants to participate in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the opening in the trees where Barnea took his famous UFO photographs, he passes the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which detects energy patterns.

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

The trees immediately cease as we emerge into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the work of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a location which inspires creativity, where the border is indistinct between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to haunt nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's renowned character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building situated on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – appears solid and predictable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for causes radioactive, climatic or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the boundary between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."