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"They call this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, his exhalation creating wisps of mist in the crisp evening air. "Numerous individuals have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to another dimension." Marius is escorting a guest on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth local woods on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of unusual events here go back hundreds of years – the grove is titled for a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a flying saucer suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he continues, turning to the visitor with a grin. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from worldwide, curious to experience the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being a top global destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of over 400,000 residents, called the tech capital of eastern Europe – are advancing, and real estate firms are advocating for permission to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares housing regionally uncommon specific tree species, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the organization he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, encouraging the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and fall foliage split and rustle beneath their shoes, Marius tells some of the local legends and reported supernatural events here.

• A well-known account describes a young child vanishing during a family picnic, then to reappear half a decade later with no memory of the events, without aging a moment, her garments shy of the slightest speck of soil.
• Frequent accounts detail smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Feelings range from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors claim seeing strange rashes on their arms, detecting disembodied whispers through the trees, or experience palms pushing them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the stories may be unverifiable, there is much visibly present that is definitely bizarre. All around are plants whose stems are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been given to clarify the misshapen plants: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the ground explain their strange formation.

But research studies have turned up insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's walks enable visitors to take part in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the clearing in the forest where Barnea took his well-known UFO pictures, he passes his guest an electromagnetic field detector which registers EMF readings.

"We're stepping into the most active area of the forest," he says. "See what you can find."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a complete ring. The single plant life is the short grass beneath our feet; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and seems that this unusual opening is wild, not the creation of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a area which inspires creativity, where the border is blurred between truth and myth. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering creatures, who emerge from tombs to terrorise local communities.

The novelist's renowned vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith perched on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide comments, "the line between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."