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"People refer to this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath creating clouds of vapor in the chilly evening air. "Countless people have gone missing here, some say it's a portal to a parallel world." This expert is guiding a guest on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval native woodland on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here extend back a long time – the forest is called after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a UFO hovering above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But no need to fear," he adds, turning to the visitor with a smile. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being a top global hotspots for supernatural fans, this woodland is under threat. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, described as the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are advancing, and construction companies are pushing for authorization to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Except for a limited section home to area-specific specific tree species, the grove is lacking legal protection, but the guide hopes that the company he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, encouraging the government officials to appreciate the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius describes some of the folk tales and alleged supernatural events here.

• A popular tale tells of a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family outing, then to reappear after five years with no recollection of the events, without aging a single day, her clothes lacking the tiniest bit of soil.
• Regular stories describe mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses vary from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Some people claim seeing strange rashes on their skin, hearing disembodied whispers through the woodland, or sense hands grabbing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the accounts may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Throughout the area are plants whose bases are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been given to clarify the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the earth account for their unusual development.

But formal examinations have discovered inconclusive results.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's excursions allow visitors to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the clearing in the forest where Barnea captured his well-known UFO images, he hands his guest an EMF meter which measures electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most powerful part of the forest," he says. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this unusual opening is natural, not the result of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a place which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

The novelist's renowned fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith situated on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – seems real and understandable compared to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a center for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius comments, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."