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"People refer to this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, his breath creating wisps of mist in the cold evening air. "Countless individuals have disappeared here, some say there's a gateway to a parallel world." The guide is escorting a visitor on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of unusual events here extend back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu came to global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a unidentified flying object hovering above a round opening in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But no need to fear," he states, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, shamans, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from around the globe, eager to feel the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, known as the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are advocating for authorization to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a few hectares containing regionally uncommon specific tree species, the forest is without conservation status, but the guide is confident that the initiative he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, persuading the government officials to appreciate the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius describes some of the local legends and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story describes a young child going missing during a group gathering, then to reappear five years later with complete amnesia of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a moment, her garments shy of the slightest speck of dust.
• Regular stories detail smartphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Reactions include full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Some people report observing unusual marks on their bodies, perceiving unseen murmurs through the woodland, or feel hands grabbing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

While many of the stories may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose bases are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the abnormal growth: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or typically increased radiation levels in the ground cause their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's tours allow participants to take part in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the clearing in the trees where Barnea photographed his famous UFO images, he hands the visitor an EMF meter which detects EMF readings.

"We're entering the most energetic section of the forest," he states. "Try to detect something."

The trees suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and looks that this strange clearing is organic, not the work of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a location which fuels fantasy, where the line is unclear between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting creatures, who rise from their graves to terrorise regional populations.

The novelist's well-known fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – seems solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for factors radioactive, environmental or entirely legendary, a nexus for human imaginative power.

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