Venturing into the Planet's Most Ghostly Forest: Gnarled Trees, UFOs and Eerie Tales in Transylvania.

"People refer to this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his breath producing puffs of condensation in the crisp evening air. "So many people have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to a different realm." Marius is escorting a guest on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient native woodland on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Stories of strange happenings here date back a long time – the grove is called after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a flying saucer hovering above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he states, addressing the traveler with a grin. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from across the world, curious to experience the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is among the planet's leading hotspots for supernatural fans, the forest is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the innovation center of the region – are advancing, and developers are advocating for permission to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a limited section housing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is without conservation status, but the guide is confident that the organization he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, persuading the authorities to acknowledge the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their boots, the guide tells numerous local legends and reported ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child disappearing during a family outing, later to rematerialise five years later with no recollection of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her garments without the slightest speck of dust.
• Frequent accounts explain mobile phones and camera equipment unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Reactions range from complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors claim noticing unusual marks on their skin, detecting disembodied whispers through the trees, or sense palms pushing them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

While many of the accounts may be hard to prove, there is much clearly observable that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are plants whose trunks are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been suggested to explain the abnormal growth: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radioactivity in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's walks allow guests to participate in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the opening in the woods where Barnea photographed his famous UFO pictures, he hands his guest an electromagnetic field detector which measures energy patterns.

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

The plants immediately cease as the group enters into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the result of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a place which fuels fantasy, where the line is blurred between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

The novelist's well-known fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building located on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable in contrast to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for factors nuclear, climatic or purely mythical, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius states, "the division between reality and imagination is extremely fine."