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"They call this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states a tour guide, his breath forming puffs of mist in the cold evening air. "So many visitors have disappeared here, some say there's a gateway to another dimension." Marius is guiding a traveler on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth local woods on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of unusual events here extend back a long time – this woodland is called after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a flying saucer floating above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he continues, facing his guest with a smile. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from worldwide, curious to experience the mysterious powers reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is among the planet's leading destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, described as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are advocating for authorization to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Barring a small area containing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius hopes that the initiative he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their footwear, the guide describes various traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story describes a young child going missing during a family outing, only to reappear five years later with no recollection of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire shy of the tiniest bit of dust.
• Frequent accounts explain mobile phones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses range from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors report seeing unusual marks on their arms, perceiving disembodied whispers through the woodland, or sense palms pushing them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

While many of the stories may be hard to prove, there is much visibly present that is certainly unusual. All around are vegetation whose bases are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been proposed to clarify the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the earth account for their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's walks allow participants to take part in a little scientific inquiry of their own. When nearing the opening in the forest where Barnea captured his famous UFO photographs, he gives his guest an EMF meter which detects EMF readings.

"We're stepping into the most powerful section of the forest," he says. "See what you can find."

The trees immediately cease as the group enters into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's clear that it's not maintained, and appears that this unusual opening is organic, not the creation of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a area which fuels fantasy, where the border is indistinct between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to terrorise regional populations.

The novelist's renowned fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure perched on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But including folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – feels real and understandable compared to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," the guide says, "the division between reality and imagination is very thin."