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"They call this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, the air from his lungs forming puffs of mist in the chilly evening air. "Numerous visitors have gone missing here, many believe it's an entrance to another dimension." This expert is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth native woodland on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Stories of bizarre occurrences here extend back hundreds of years – this woodland is called after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a UFO suspended above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he continues, facing his guest with a smile. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, shamans, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from around the globe, interested in encountering the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Despite being a top global destinations 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 Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are campaigning for approval to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Except for a few hectares home to locally rare specific tree species, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the initiative he co-founded – a dedicated preservation group – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the government officials to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

While branches and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius tells various traditional stories and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child going missing during a family outing, later to return half a decade later with no memory of her experience, without aging a moment, her clothes lacking the slightest speck of dust.
• More common reports detail mobile phones and camera equipment unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Feelings vary from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals claim observing strange rashes on their arms, hearing disembodied whispers through the woodland, or feel palms pushing them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the accounts may be unverifiable, there is much clearly observable that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose stems are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been suggested to explain the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radioactivity in the earth cause their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's walks permit participants to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. When nearing the opening in the woods where Barnea took his famous UFO images, he gives his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects EMF readings.

"We're stepping into the most energetic area of the forest," he comments. "See what you can find."

The trees suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this strange clearing is organic, not the result of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a place which stirs the imagination, where the line is blurred between reality and legend. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to haunt regional populations.

Bram Stoker's famous character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – seems real and understandable in contrast to this spooky forest, which appear to be, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a hub for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide states, "the division between reality and imagination is very thin."