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"People refer to this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, his exhalation forming wisps of condensation in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have vanished here, many believe it's an entrance to another dimension." The guide is leading a visitor on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval indigenous forest on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Reports of unusual events here go back hundreds of years – this woodland is named after a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a unidentified flying object hovering above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he adds, addressing the visitor with a smirk. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, ufologists and ghost hunters from around the globe, eager to feel the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for supernatural fans, this woodland is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are advocating for approval to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a limited section containing regionally uncommon oak varieties, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius hopes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a dedicated preservation group – will assist in altering this, motivating the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their shoes, the guide recounts some of the folk tales and reported ghostly incidents here.

• One famous story tells of a little girl vanishing during a family outing, only to reappear half a decade later with complete amnesia of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a moment, her clothes without the smallest trace of dirt.
• Frequent accounts detail smartphones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Reactions vary from absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors report seeing strange rashes on their arms, detecting disembodied whispers through the trees, or feel hands grabbing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the stories may be unverifiable, numerous elements before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. All around are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to account for the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the ground account for their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have found inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's tours permit visitors to take part in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the opening in the forest where Barnea captured his famous UFO images, he passes the traveler an EMF meter which registers electromagnetic fields.

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

The plants immediately cease as they step into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the short grass beneath our feet; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this unusual opening is natural, not the creation of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a location which fuels fantasy, where the division is indistinct between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise local communities.

Bram Stoker's well-known character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building situated on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – appears tangible and comprehensible in contrast to this spooky forest, which appear to be, for reasons nuclear, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a center for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide says, "the line between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."