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"They call this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, his exhalation creating puffs of condensation in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "So many people have vanished here, it's thought it's a portal to a parallel world." Marius is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval indigenous forest on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Reports of bizarre occurrences here date back a long time – this woodland is titled for a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the long ago, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to global recognition in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a flying saucer hovering above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he states, turning to the visitor with a grin. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from around the globe, eager to feel the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for approval to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Except for a small area housing area-specific specific tree species, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius hopes that the organization he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their footwear, the guide describes numerous traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story tells of a young child disappearing during a group gathering, then to return five years later with no memory of what had happened, without aging a single day, her garments lacking the tiniest bit of dirt.
• Regular stories detail smartphones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Feelings range from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Some people report seeing strange rashes on their skin, hearing unseen murmurs through the forest, or feel palms pushing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there are many things before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are plants whose stems are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the earth explain their unusual development.

But research studies have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

Marius's tours allow visitors to engage in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea captured his well-known UFO pictures, he gives the traveler an EMF meter which measures EMF readings.

"We're venturing into the most active section of the forest," he says. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation immediately cease as they step into a flawless round. The single plant life is the short grass beneath our feet; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the creation of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a place which inspires creativity, where the border is indistinct between truth and myth. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to haunt nearby villages.

The novelist's famous fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building situated on a cliff edge in the mountain range – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – seems solid and predictable compared to these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for reasons nuclear, climatic or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.

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