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"Locals dub this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a tour guide, the air from his lungs producing clouds of vapor in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Numerous individuals have gone missing here, many believe it's an entrance to a different realm." The guide is guiding a traveler on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval local woods on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of unusual events here extend back hundreds of years – the forest is called after a area shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a UFO suspended above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But no need to fear," he adds, facing his guest with a smile. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, shamans, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from around the globe, interested in encountering the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the innovation center of eastern Europe – are advancing, and real estate firms are pushing for authorization to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Barring a limited section home to area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is without conservation status, but the guide believes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, motivating the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

While branches and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius describes some of the local legends and claimed supernatural events here.

• A popular tale describes a five-year-old girl going missing during a family outing, later to return five years later with no recollection of her experience, showing no signs of aging a moment, her clothes without the slightest speck of soil.
• Frequent accounts explain cellphones and camera equipment mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses range from complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals claim observing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, hearing disembodied whispers through the trees, or feel palms pushing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, there is much before my eyes that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are trees whose trunks are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been suggested to account for the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the ground account for their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's walks enable guests to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea captured his famous UFO images, he hands the traveler an EMF meter which measures electromagnetic fields.

"We're entering the most active section of the forest," he comments. "See what you can find."

The trees immediately cease as we emerge into a flawless round. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the result of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a location which inspires creativity, where the line is indistinct between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering creatures, who emerge from tombs to frighten regional populations.

The novelist's renowned character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith perched on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – appears real and understandable in contrast to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for factors nuclear, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide comments, "the division between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."