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"Locals dub this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains a local guide, his exhalation producing clouds of mist in the crisp evening air. "So many people have gone missing here, many believe there's a gateway to a different realm." This expert is escorting a guest on a night walk through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient native woodland on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of strange happenings here date back hundreds of years – the grove is named after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a UFO floating above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But rest assured," he continues, addressing the visitor with a smile. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from across the world, curious to experience the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are pushing for authorization to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Except for a limited section containing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is without conservation status, but the guide believes that the organization he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, persuading the government officials to acknowledge the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

While branches and seasonal debris split and rustle beneath their footwear, Marius tells numerous traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child vanishing during a family outing, then to return half a decade later with no memory of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a single day, her clothes without the slightest speck of dirt.
• More common reports describe mobile phones and camera equipment unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Reactions vary from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Some people report seeing strange rashes on their skin, perceiving ghostly voices through the forest, or experience hands grabbing them, although sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the stories may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Throughout the area are trees whose trunks are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or naturally high radiation levels in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But research studies have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's excursions permit visitors to engage in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the meadow in the forest where Barnea took his renowned UFO pictures, he hands the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which detects EMF readings.

"We're stepping into the most energetic section of the forest," he states. "Try to detect something."

The trees suddenly stop dead as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the creation of human hands.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a place which fuels fantasy, where the border is unclear between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to haunt nearby villages.

The novelist's famous fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building located on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – feels tangible and comprehensible in contrast to this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for factors related to radiation, climatic or purely mythical, a center for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," the guide says, "the division between reality and imagination is extremely fine."