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"Locals dub this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his breath creating puffs of mist in the crisp night air. "Numerous people have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to a different realm." Marius is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth native woodland on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of unusual events here go back centuries – this woodland is named after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a UFO suspended above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he adds, facing the traveler with a smirk. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from across the world, eager to feel the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are advocating for authorization to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Except for a limited section containing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is without conservation status, but Marius is confident that the initiative he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to recognise the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

While branches and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, Marius recounts various folk tales and claimed supernatural events here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl going missing during a family picnic, later to rematerialise five years later with no recollection of her experience, without aging a moment, her attire shy of the slightest speck of dirt.
• Regular stories detail cellphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions vary from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Some people claim seeing strange rashes on their skin, hearing unseen murmurs through the forest, or experience hands grabbing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the tales may be unverifiable, numerous elements visibly present that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been suggested to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radiation levels in the soil account for their strange formation.

But formal examinations have discovered insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's tours permit guests to participate in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the opening in the forest where Barnea captured his famous UFO photographs, he hands the visitor an ghost-hunting device which detects EMF readings.

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

The trees suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a complete ring. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this unusual opening is natural, not the creation of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a place which inspires creativity, where the border is unclear between reality and legend. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting vampires, who return from burial sites to haunt nearby villages.

The novelist's well-known vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – seems tangible and comprehensible versus this spooky forest, which appear to be, for causes related to radiation, climatic or entirely legendary, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," the guide says, "the line between truth and fantasy is remarkably blurred."