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"People refer to this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, his exhalation forming clouds of vapor in the crisp evening air. "So many visitors have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to a parallel world." Marius is guiding a visitor on a evening stroll through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth local woods on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of unusual events here date back centuries – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a flying saucer floating above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But rest assured," he states, addressing the traveler with a smirk. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, shamans, ufologists and supernatural researchers from around the globe, eager to feel the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of the region – are encroaching, and real estate firms are campaigning for approval to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a limited section containing area-specific oak varieties, this woodland is without conservation status, but the guide hopes that the company he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the government officials to appreciate the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their boots, the guide describes numerous traditional stories and reported supernatural events here.

• One famous story describes a young child disappearing during a family picnic, then to return five years later with no memory of the events, having not aged a single day, her clothes shy of the tiniest bit of dirt.
• More common reports explain smartphones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings include absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals state observing bizarre skin irritations on their skin, perceiving unseen murmurs through the woodland, or experience fingers clutching them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

While many of the tales may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements before my eyes that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been proposed to explain the misshapen plants: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the soil cause their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have found insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's walks permit participants to take part in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the meadow in the trees where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an EMF meter which measures electromagnetic fields.

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

The trees suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the short grass beneath the ground; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the work of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a place which stirs the imagination, where the division is unclear between truth and myth. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to haunt local communities.

Bram Stoker's well-known vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – appears tangible and comprehensible in contrast to the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for reasons radioactive, environmental or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius states, "the division between fact and fiction is extremely fine."