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"They call this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a local guide, his breath forming puffs of condensation in the cold evening air. "So many people have vanished here, it's thought there's a gateway to a different realm." The guide is guiding a guest on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval native woodland on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here extend back centuries – the forest is named after a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the long ago, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a UFO suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But no need to fear," he states, facing his guest with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from across the world, interested in encountering the mysterious powers reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be among the planet's leading hotspots for supernatural fans, the grove is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the innovation center of the region – are encroaching, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Except for a limited section containing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but the guide believes that the organization he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, persuading the authorities to appreciate the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, Marius tells numerous traditional stories and reported supernatural events here.

• One famous story recounts a young child vanishing during a family outing, later to return five years later with no recollection of what had happened, without aging a day, her clothes lacking the tiniest bit of soil.
• More common reports describe mobile phones and camera equipment unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Feelings range from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Some people state seeing strange rashes on their skin, perceiving disembodied whispers through the forest, or experience fingers clutching them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

While many of the tales may be unverifiable, numerous elements clearly observable that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose stems are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been proposed to account for the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the soil account for their crooked growth.

But research studies have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's excursions permit guests to take part in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the meadow in the woods where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO pictures, he gives his guest an EMF meter which detects energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most active section of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something."

The plants abruptly end as we emerge into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the result of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a place which fuels fantasy, where the line is unclear between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, shapeshifting vampires, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's well-known character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – appears solid and predictable in contrast to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for causes related to radiation, environmental or purely mythical, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius comments, "the division between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."