Venturing into the Globe's Spookiest Woodland: Contorted Trees, Unidentified Flying Objects and Chilling Accounts in Transylvania.

"They call this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath producing wisps of vapor in the cold evening air. "Countless visitors have gone missing here, many believe it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is escorting a traveler on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth local woods on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of strange happenings here extend back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the distant past, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a unidentified flying object hovering above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But no need to fear," he adds, facing the visitor with a smile. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, shamans, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from worldwide, eager to feel the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier destinations for supernatural fans, the forest is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are advocating for approval to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Except for a few hectares housing area-specific specific tree species, this woodland is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the company he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their shoes, Marius recounts some of the local legends and alleged supernatural events here.

• A popular tale recounts a little girl disappearing during a family picnic, later to rematerialise after five years with no recollection of what had happened, without aging a single day, her garments without the tiniest bit of dirt.
• Regular stories explain mobile phones and camera equipment mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Reactions vary from absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors claim observing strange rashes on their arms, perceiving unseen murmurs through the trees, or sense fingers clutching them, despite being sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the accounts may be hard to prove, there is much before my eyes that is certainly unusual. All around are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been given to explain the misshapen plants: strong gales could have altered the growth, or naturally high radiation levels in the earth account for their unusual development.

But formal examinations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's excursions enable guests to take part in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the clearing in the forest where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO photographs, he passes the traveler an EMF meter which detects electromagnetic fields.

"We're entering the most powerful part of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation immediately cease as we emerge into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's clear that it's not maintained, and appears that this unusual opening is wild, not the result of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a location which fuels fantasy, where the border is unclear between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting vampires, who rise from their graves to frighten regional populations.

Bram Stoker's famous vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure perched on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – seems tangible and comprehensible compared to these eerie woods, which appear to be, for reasons related to radiation, environmental or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the line between truth and fantasy is very thin."