Venturing into this Planet's Most Ghostly Grove: Twisted Trees, Flying Saucers and Chilling Accounts in Romania's Legendary Region.

"Locals dub this spot a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, the air from his lungs producing wisps of mist in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "Numerous visitors have gone missing here, it's thought it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is leading a visitor on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient indigenous forest on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of bizarre occurrences here extend back hundreds of years – the forest is named after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a UFO suspended above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But no need to fear," he adds, facing the visitor with a grin. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from around the globe, interested in encountering the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be a top global destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are expanding, and developers are pushing for permission to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a few hectares housing regionally uncommon specific tree species, the grove is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the initiative he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the authorities to acknowledge the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their shoes, the guide describes various folk tales and claimed supernatural events here.

• A popular tale tells of a little girl disappearing during a group gathering, then to return five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, showing no signs of aging a day, her garments shy of the smallest trace of dirt.
• Regular stories explain cellphones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses vary from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Some people report observing strange rashes on their skin, hearing disembodied whispers through the trees, or experience palms pushing them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the stories may be unverifiable, numerous elements clearly observable that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose stems are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been proposed to account for the misshapen plants: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radiation levels in the soil cause their strange formation.

But research studies have found insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's walks permit participants to take part in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the opening in the woods where Barnea took his well-known UFO photographs, he passes his guest an ghost-hunting device which registers energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most energetic part of the forest," he states. "See what you can find."

The vegetation abruptly end as they step into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and looks that this strange clearing is organic, not the creation of people.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a place which inspires creativity, where the division is blurred between fact and folklore. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering creatures, who rise from their graves to frighten local communities.

Bram Stoker's renowned character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith located on a stone formation in the mountain range – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – appears tangible and comprehensible compared to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for reasons nuclear, environmental or simply folkloric, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," the guide states, "the line between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."