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"They call this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a local guide, his breath creating clouds of mist in the cold evening air. "Numerous people have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to a different realm." The guide is leading a guest on a evening stroll through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient indigenous forest on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Reports of strange happenings here date back centuries – this woodland is called after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a UFO floating above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he adds, turning to his guest with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, shamans, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from around the globe, curious to experience the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are advocating for permission to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a small area housing area-specific oak varieties, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the company he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the authorities to recognise the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and fall foliage split and rustle beneath their boots, the guide tells numerous local legends and claimed supernatural events here.

• One famous story describes a young child vanishing during a group gathering, only to return half a decade later with complete amnesia of her experience, having not aged a day, her garments without the slightest speck of dust.
• Frequent accounts describe cellphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses range from complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals claim noticing unusual marks on their arms, detecting ghostly voices through the woodland, or sense hands grabbing them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements visibly present that is definitely bizarre. Throughout the area are plants whose bases are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been proposed to account for the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or typically increased radiation levels in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's walks permit participants to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the forest where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO pictures, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most active part of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation immediately cease as we emerge into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this unusual opening is natural, not the work of people.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a location which inspires creativity, where the line is indistinct between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering creatures, who emerge from tombs to terrorise regional populations.

The novelist's well-known character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building perched on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – feels real and understandable in contrast to these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for reasons nuclear, environmental or purely mythical, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide states, "the division between reality and imagination is extremely fine."