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"People refer to this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a local guide, his exhalation producing clouds of condensation in the cold night air. "So many individuals have disappeared here, many believe it's a portal to another dimension." Marius is guiding a visitor on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth native woodland on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of bizarre occurrences here date back centuries – this woodland is called after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a unidentified flying object floating above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But rest assured," he adds, addressing his guest with a smirk. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, shamans, ufologists and ghost hunters from across the world, interested in encountering the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is among the planet's leading hotspots for supernatural fans, the forest is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are advocating for authorization to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Except for a small area home to locally rare oak varieties, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide believes that the organization he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the authorities to appreciate the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their shoes, the guide recounts some of the traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story describes a young child vanishing during a group gathering, later to return half a decade later with complete amnesia of the events, without aging a single day, her garments lacking the slightest speck of dust.
• Frequent accounts explain smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Reactions include complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals report observing strange rashes on their skin, perceiving ghostly voices through the trees, or feel fingers clutching them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Although numerous of the accounts may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is certainly unusual. All around are plants whose bases are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been proposed to clarify the deformed trees: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the earth account for their unusual development.

But formal examinations have found insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's tours allow visitors to engage in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the opening in the forest where Barnea captured his renowned UFO images, he passes his guest an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields.

"We're venturing into the most active area of the forest," he says. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation immediately cease as they step into a flawless round. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and looks that this unusual opening is organic, not the work of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a location which stirs the imagination, where the line is blurred between fact and folklore. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting vampires, who rise from their graves to frighten nearby villages.

The novelist's renowned fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – appears solid and predictable compared to these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for reasons related to radiation, environmental or purely mythical, a center for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius comments, "the line between reality and imagination is extremely fine."