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"Locals dub this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states a local guide, his exhalation creating puffs of mist in the chilly night air. "So many visitors have disappeared here, some say it's an entrance to another dimension." This expert is leading a guest on a night walk through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval native woodland on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of bizarre occurrences here go back centuries – the forest is called after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a UFO suspended above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But no need to fear," he continues, addressing the visitor with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from worldwide, curious to experience the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is among the planet's leading hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is facing danger. 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 construction companies are campaigning for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares housing locally rare specific tree species, the grove is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the company he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the local administrators to appreciate the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

As twigs and seasonal debris split and rustle beneath their shoes, Marius recounts numerous traditional stories and alleged paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale describes a little girl vanishing during a group gathering, then to rematerialise five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, without aging a single day, her attire shy of the slightest speck of dirt.
• Regular stories detail cellphones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Reactions range from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals state noticing bizarre skin irritations on their skin, detecting disembodied whispers through the trees, or experience fingers clutching them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the accounts may be unverifiable, there are many things clearly observable that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose bases are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been suggested to explain the abnormal growth: strong gales could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the ground explain their unusual development.

But formal examinations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's excursions allow guests to engage in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the clearing in the forest where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an EMF meter which registers electromagnetic fields.

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

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a flawless round. The only greenery is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the work of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a location which stirs the imagination, where the division is indistinct between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering creatures, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's renowned vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – an ancient structure located on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – appears real and understandable versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for causes related to radiation, climatic or purely mythical, a hub for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the line between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."