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"They call this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a tour guide, the air from his lungs producing puffs of condensation in the chilly night air. "Countless individuals have gone missing here, it's thought there's a gateway to another dimension." Marius is guiding a traveler on a evening stroll through commonly known as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth local woods on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of strange happenings here go back centuries – the forest is titled for a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the distant past, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a flying saucer suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But don't worry," he states, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, shamans, ufologists and ghost hunters from around the globe, curious to experience the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Despite being one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for supernatural fans, this woodland is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the tech capital of the region – are advancing, and construction companies are advocating for authorization to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a few hectares home to regionally uncommon specific tree species, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the organization he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, persuading the government officials to appreciate the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their shoes, the guide describes various local legends and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• One famous story recounts a little girl going missing during a family outing, later to reappear five years later with no memory of the events, showing no signs of aging a moment, her clothes lacking the slightest speck of soil.
• Regular stories detail cellphones and camera equipment mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Reactions include absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals report observing unusual marks on their arms, hearing unseen murmurs through the forest, or feel hands grabbing them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the tales may be unverifiable, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are vegetation whose trunks are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been suggested to account for the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the ground cause their crooked growth.

But research studies have turned up insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's excursions allow guests to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. When nearing the opening in the forest where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO images, he hands his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects EMF readings.

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

The vegetation abruptly end as we emerge into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's not maintained, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the work of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a area which fuels fantasy, where the division is indistinct between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing vampires, who rise from their graves to terrorise nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's famous fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith situated on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels tangible and comprehensible compared to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or purely mythical, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," Marius says, "the boundary between reality and imagination is very thin."