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"Locals dub this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, the air from his lungs forming puffs of mist in the cold night air. "So many individuals have vanished here, it's thought it's an entrance to a parallel world." This expert is escorting a guest on a evening stroll through what is often described as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient native woodland on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of bizarre occurrences here extend back hundreds of years – the forest is called after a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the long ago, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a unidentified flying object floating above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But no need to fear," he adds, addressing the traveler with a smile. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, ufologists and ghost hunters from across the world, interested in encountering the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, known as the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and developers are campaigning for authorization to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Barring a limited section home to locally rare oak varieties, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the government officials to recognise the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their shoes, the guide tells some of the local legends and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl going missing during a family picnic, then to return half a decade later with complete amnesia of her experience, showing no signs of aging a single day, her clothes lacking the smallest trace of dirt.
• Regular stories explain smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions include complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals state noticing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, detecting unseen murmurs through the trees, or experience fingers clutching them, although sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the stories may be unverifiable, there are many things clearly observable that is definitely bizarre. All around are trees whose bases are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Different theories have been suggested to explain the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the ground account for their crooked growth.

But research studies have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's excursions allow participants to engage in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the clearing in the woods where Barnea captured his famous UFO pictures, he gives his guest an EMF meter which registers energy patterns.

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

The trees suddenly stop dead as they step into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath the ground; it's clear that it's not maintained, and seems that this unusual opening is wild, not the creation of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a place which inspires creativity, where the division is unclear between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise nearby villages.

The famous author's famous vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure situated on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – feels real and understandable in contrast to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," Marius comments, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."