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"They call this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his breath forming clouds of vapor in the chilly evening air. "So many individuals have vanished here, many believe there's a gateway to another dimension." This expert is leading a traveler on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient native woodland on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of strange happenings here date back centuries – this woodland is titled for a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a UFO hovering above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But don't worry," he continues, turning to the traveler with a smile. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from across the world, eager to feel the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be a top global destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are advocating for permission to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Except for a small area housing regionally uncommon oak varieties, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide hopes that the organization he co-founded – a dedicated preservation group – will assist in altering this, encouraging the government officials to acknowledge the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

As twigs and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius recounts various traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family picnic, then to rematerialise five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, without aging a single day, her clothes shy of the slightest speck of dust.
• Regular stories detail smartphones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses vary from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Some people report noticing unusual marks on their skin, detecting disembodied whispers through the forest, or feel hands grabbing them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the stories may be unverifiable, there is much visibly present that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose trunks are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or naturally high radiation levels in the soil explain their unusual development.

But research studies have discovered insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

Marius's walks enable participants to engage in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the forest where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO pictures, he gives the traveler an ghost-hunting device which measures energy patterns.

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

The plants immediately cease as they step into a complete ring. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this strange clearing is wild, not the work of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a place which inspires creativity, where the division is unclear between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, shapeshifting vampires, who return from burial sites to terrorise nearby villages.

The novelist's renowned fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith perched on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – appears solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius says, "the division between truth and fantasy is very thin."