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"They call this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," explains a local guide, his exhalation producing puffs of vapor in the cold night air. "So many individuals have vanished here, many believe it's an entrance to a parallel world." Marius is escorting a guest on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of strange happenings here extend back hundreds of years – the grove is named after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a flying saucer floating above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But don't worry," he adds, turning to the traveler with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from across the world, interested in encountering the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is facing danger. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of the region – are encroaching, and developers are advocating for authorization to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Barring a small area containing area-specific oak varieties, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the company he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the authorities to acknowledge the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their footwear, Marius recounts some of the traditional stories and claimed supernatural events here.

• One famous story tells of a young child disappearing during a family outing, only to return after five years with complete amnesia of what had happened, without aging a single day, her garments without the tiniest bit of dust.
• Frequent accounts detail smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Reactions range from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Some people report observing strange rashes on their bodies, detecting unseen murmurs through the forest, or sense palms pushing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the stories may be hard to prove, there is much before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose stems are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been given to clarify the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the ground account for their strange formation.

But research studies have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's walks enable participants to engage in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the meadow in the forest where Barnea captured his renowned UFO images, he passes his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects electromagnetic fields.

"We're entering the most energetic section of the forest," he comments. "See what you can find."

The plants suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a flawless round. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and looks that this unusual opening is organic, not the work of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a location which stirs the imagination, where the division is indistinct between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to haunt nearby villages.

The novelist's famous vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building located on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – appears real and understandable compared to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for factors related to radiation, environmental or purely mythical, a center for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," the guide states, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is very thin."