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"They call this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, the air from his lungs creating clouds of vapor in the chilly evening air. "Countless visitors have vanished here, it's thought it's an entrance to a parallel world." Marius is guiding a visitor on a night walk through what is often described as the globe's spookiest grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth local woods on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here go back centuries – the forest is called after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a unidentified flying object floating above a round opening in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he continues, turning to the visitor with a smile. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from around the globe, curious to experience the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being a top global destinations for supernatural fans, the grove is under threat. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the innovation center of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and construction companies are advocating for permission to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Except for a few hectares home to area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the organization he co-founded – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, persuading the authorities to acknowledge the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide tells numerous local legends and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale recounts a little girl vanishing during a family outing, only to reappear five years later with complete amnesia of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a moment, her clothes shy of the tiniest bit of dirt.
• Frequent accounts describe mobile phones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses vary from complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors state observing unusual marks on their bodies, detecting ghostly voices through the trees, or sense fingers clutching them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the tales may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. All around are plants whose trunks are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been given to explain the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or typically increased radiation levels in the earth account for their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's walks allow visitors to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the clearing in the woods where Barnea photographed his famous UFO pictures, he hands the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields.

"We're venturing into the most active section of the forest," he comments. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation abruptly end as the group enters into a flawless round. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and appears that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the work of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a area which inspires creativity, where the line is unclear between reality and legend. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting vampires, who rise from their graves to terrorise regional populations.

Bram Stoker's famous vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure situated on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for factors radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a center for fantasy projection.

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