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"They call this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath creating clouds of vapor in the cold night air. "Countless people have gone missing here, many believe it's a portal to another dimension." Marius is escorting a traveler on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth native woodland on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of unusual events here extend back hundreds of years – the forest is called after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a UFO floating above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But don't worry," he adds, turning to the traveler with a grin. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, shamans, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, described as the Silicon Valley of the region – are advancing, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares containing regionally uncommon specific tree species, the forest is without conservation status, but Marius hopes that the company he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their footwear, Marius tells various local legends and claimed supernatural events here.

• One famous story tells of a young child vanishing during a family outing, only to return half a decade later with no memory of her experience, having not aged a day, her attire lacking the smallest trace of dust.
• Frequent accounts explain smartphones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Feelings include absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals state seeing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, detecting disembodied whispers through the forest, or feel palms pushing them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the tales may be unverifiable, there is much visibly present that is certainly unusual. All around are vegetation whose stems are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been given to clarify the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the ground account for their strange formation.

But research studies have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's tours enable participants to engage in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea took his famous UFO photographs, he hands the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which detects EMF readings.

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

The plants abruptly end as the group enters into a flawless round. The only greenery is the short grass beneath our feet; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and seems that this strange clearing is natural, not the work of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a place which inspires creativity, where the border is indistinct between truth and myth. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to terrorise regional populations.

Bram Stoker's famous fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure perched on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – seems solid and predictable in contrast to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for factors radioactive, climatic or entirely legendary, a center for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," Marius says, "the line between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."