Venturing into the Planet's Most Ghostly Grove: Twisted Trees, UFOs and Spooky Stories in Transylvania.

"They call this spot a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," explains a local guide, his exhalation forming wisps of condensation in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have gone missing here, it's thought there's a gateway to a parallel world." The guide is leading a visitor on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient local woods on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Reports of unusual events here extend back centuries – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to global recognition in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a unidentified flying object suspended above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But don't worry," he states, facing his guest with a grin. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, shamans, ufologists and ghost hunters from around the globe, interested in encountering the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is among the planet's leading hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is facing danger. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, described as the innovation center of eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are campaigning for approval to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a few hectares containing locally rare oak varieties, the grove is not officially protected, but the guide is confident that the company he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to appreciate the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

While branches and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius recounts various traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account describes a little girl disappearing during a family outing, later to return half a decade later with complete amnesia of what had happened, without aging a moment, her garments shy of the slightest speck of soil.
• Frequent accounts describe smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses include absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals state noticing unusual marks on their arms, perceiving ghostly voices through the woodland, or sense fingers clutching them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

While many of the stories may be hard to prove, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the deformed trees: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the soil account for their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have found insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's excursions allow participants to participate in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the clearing in the woods where Barnea took his famous UFO images, he passes the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which registers EMF readings.

"We're entering the most energetic section of the forest," he comments. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation immediately cease as the group enters into a complete ring. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this strange clearing is organic, not the result of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a area which fuels fantasy, where the line is indistinct between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to frighten local communities.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith located on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – appears tangible and comprehensible compared to these eerie woods, which appear to be, for factors related to radiation, environmental or simply folkloric, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," the guide comments, "the line between truth and fantasy is very thin."