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"Locals dub this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, his exhalation forming clouds of vapor in the chilly evening air. "Numerous visitors have vanished here, many believe there's a gateway to a parallel world." Marius is leading a traveler on a night walk through what is often described as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient native woodland on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of bizarre occurrences here date back centuries – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a UFO hovering above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he continues, addressing the visitor with a smirk. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from around the globe, eager to feel the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are advocating for authorization to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares containing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide hopes that the company he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, encouraging the government officials to acknowledge the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their footwear, the guide tells various folk tales and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account describes a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family outing, then to return half a decade later with no recollection of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a single day, her garments lacking the slightest speck of dust.
• More common reports detail mobile phones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses range from complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors report noticing unusual marks on their bodies, detecting ghostly voices through the trees, or feel fingers clutching them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the stories may be unverifiable, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose bases are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been suggested to explain the misshapen plants: strong gales could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the soil cause their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have found inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's walks permit visitors to take part in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the opening in the trees where Barnea captured his well-known UFO photographs, he passes the traveler an EMF meter which registers energy patterns.

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

The trees immediately cease as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this bizarre meadow is organic, 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 unclear between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who return from burial sites to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's famous fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith perched on a stone formation in the mountain range – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – seems tangible and comprehensible compared to this spooky forest, which appear to be, for causes radioactive, climatic or purely mythical, a hub for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the division between reality and imagination is extremely fine."