Exploring the Globe's Spookiest Woodland: Twisted Trees, Unidentified Flying Objects and Eerie Tales in Transylvania.

"Locals dub this spot a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states a tour guide, his exhalation creating clouds of condensation in the cold night air. "So many visitors have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to another dimension." Marius is escorting a visitor on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth local woods on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of strange happenings here go back hundreds of years – this woodland is called after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a flying saucer floating above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

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

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yogis, shamans, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from across the world, eager to feel the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is a top global hotspots for supernatural fans, this woodland is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, called the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and construction companies are campaigning for approval to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Except for a few hectares home to regionally uncommon oak varieties, the grove is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the organization he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their shoes, Marius describes various traditional stories and claimed supernatural events here.

• A popular tale recounts a five-year-old girl going missing during a family picnic, later to reappear five years later with complete amnesia of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire without the tiniest bit of soil.
• Regular stories describe cellphones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Reactions include absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals report observing unusual marks on their bodies, perceiving unseen murmurs through the trees, or sense palms pushing them, even when sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the stories may be impossible to confirm, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are vegetation whose trunks are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the earth account for their strange formation.

But research studies have found insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's tours enable visitors to engage in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the forest where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an EMF meter which measures energy patterns.

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

The plants immediately cease as we emerge into a complete ring. The single plant life is the short grass beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the creation of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a location which inspires creativity, where the division is unclear between truth and myth. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting creatures, who rise from their graves to frighten nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's famous fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith located on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – appears solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which appear to be, for factors nuclear, atmospheric or purely mythical, a hub for creative energy.

"Inside these woods," the guide comments, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."