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"Locals dub this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states a local guide, his exhalation producing puffs of condensation in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "Numerous visitors have vanished here, some say it's an entrance to a parallel world." Marius is escorting a visitor on a night walk through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient local woods on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of bizarre occurrences here date back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a unidentified flying object hovering above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But no need to fear," he adds, turning to the traveler with a smile. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from around the globe, interested in encountering the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is a top global hotspots for supernatural fans, the forest is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and developers are advocating for approval to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Barring a limited section home to regionally uncommon specific tree species, the forest is without conservation status, but the guide believes that the initiative he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, encouraging the government officials to recognise the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, Marius tells some of the folk tales and reported supernatural events here.

• A popular tale tells of a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family picnic, only to return after five years with no memory of her experience, showing no signs of aging a single day, her clothes shy of the tiniest bit of soil.
• Regular stories describe mobile phones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses include absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors state noticing strange rashes on their arms, hearing ghostly voices through the forest, or experience fingers clutching them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the stories may be hard to prove, numerous elements visibly present that is certainly unusual. All around are plants whose trunks are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radiation levels in the ground cause their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have discovered insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's walks enable visitors to engage in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the meadow in the trees where Barnea took his well-known UFO pictures, he passes the visitor an EMF meter which detects electromagnetic fields.

"We're entering the most active part of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the result of human hands.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a location which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering vampires, who return from burial sites to haunt local communities.

Bram Stoker's renowned vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith situated on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – seems solid and predictable compared to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for causes related to radiation, climatic or entirely legendary, a hub for creative energy.

"Within this forest," Marius comments, "the boundary between reality and imagination is very thin."