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"People refer to this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath creating clouds of mist in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Numerous individuals have vanished here, many believe it's a portal to a parallel world." This expert is leading a visitor on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval indigenous forest on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of strange happenings here extend back centuries – the forest is named after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a UFO suspended above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But rest assured," he adds, facing his guest with a smile. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from around the globe, eager to feel the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for supernatural fans, the grove is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are advocating for permission to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Barring a limited section home to area-specific specific tree species, the grove is without conservation status, but the guide believes that the organization he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to appreciate the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their shoes, the guide describes some of the traditional stories and alleged supernatural events here.

• A well-known account recounts a young child vanishing during a group gathering, then to reappear half a decade later with no memory of what had happened, without aging a single day, her clothes shy of the tiniest bit of soil.
• Regular stories explain mobile phones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Feelings range from complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Some people report noticing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, detecting unseen murmurs through the woodland, or experience hands grabbing them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Although numerous of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there is much before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are plants whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Different theories have been suggested to account for the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the ground explain their strange formation.

But research studies have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's walks enable guests to participate in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the meadow in the forest where Barnea took his well-known UFO photographs, he hands the visitor an ghost-hunting device which detects EMF readings.

"We're stepping into the most active area of the forest," he comments. "See what you can find."

The trees suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the short grass beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the work of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a area which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between reality and legend. In traditional settlements superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, shapeshifting creatures, who return from burial sites to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure situated on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – appears tangible and comprehensible in contrast to this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a hub for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is remarkably blurred."