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"They call this spot an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a local guide, the air from his lungs forming clouds of condensation in the cold night air. "Countless individuals have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to another dimension." Marius is escorting a traveler on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth local woods on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of strange happenings here extend back centuries – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a flying saucer suspended above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But no need to fear," he states, addressing the visitor with a smile. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, shamans, ufologists and paranormal investigators from around the globe, eager to feel the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be one of the world's premier hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the innovation center of the region – are encroaching, and developers are pushing for authorization to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a limited section containing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is without conservation status, but the guide hopes that the organization he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, motivating the government officials to appreciate the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their boots, the guide describes some of the folk tales and alleged supernatural events here.

• One famous story describes a little girl vanishing during a family outing, only to rematerialise five years later with no memory of her experience, without aging a moment, her clothes without the smallest trace of dirt.
• Frequent accounts explain mobile phones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Reactions vary from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals report observing bizarre skin irritations on their skin, detecting disembodied whispers through the woodland, or sense fingers clutching them, although sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the stories may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are plants whose trunks are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to account for the misshapen plants: powerful storms 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 Famous Clearing

Marius's tours allow guests to participate in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the meadow in the forest where Barnea took his well-known UFO photographs, he passes the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures energy patterns.

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

The trees abruptly end as they step into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's clear that it's not maintained, and looks that this unusual opening is natural, not the creation of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a area which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting vampires, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's renowned character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure located on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – feels solid and predictable in contrast to this spooky forest, which appear to be, for reasons nuclear, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a hub for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide says, "the division between truth and fantasy is very thin."