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"Locals dub this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a local guide, the air from his lungs creating puffs of condensation in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Countless visitors have gone missing here, it's thought it's an entrance to a parallel world." The guide is guiding a guest on a evening stroll through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth local woods on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of bizarre occurrences here go back hundreds of years – the grove is titled for a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to global recognition in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a unidentified flying object floating above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he continues, turning to the visitor with a smile. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from worldwide, curious to experience the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, described as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and construction companies are campaigning for authorization to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a small area housing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is without conservation status, but Marius believes that the company he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, encouraging the government officials to acknowledge the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

While branches and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius describes numerous folk tales and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale tells of a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family picnic, then to reappear five years later with no memory of her experience, without aging a day, her attire shy of the smallest trace of dirt.
• Regular stories detail mobile phones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Feelings vary from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors state noticing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, detecting ghostly voices through the forest, or experience fingers clutching them, although sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the stories may be impossible to confirm, there are many things clearly observable that is undeniably strange. All around are trees whose stems are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been proposed to explain the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radioactivity in the ground cause their strange formation.

But formal examinations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's tours allow visitors to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the opening in the woods where Barnea took his renowned UFO images, he hands the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which registers energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most powerful part of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation immediately cease as they step into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and looks that this strange clearing is wild, not the creation of human hands.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a area which stirs the imagination, where the border is unclear between truth and myth. In traditional settlements faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise local communities.

The famous author's famous character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure perched on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – feels real and understandable in contrast to this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the line between reality and imagination is very thin."