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"People refer to this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, his exhalation creating puffs of mist in the chilly night air. "So many visitors have vanished here, some say it's an entrance to another dimension." This expert is guiding a traveler on a evening stroll through commonly known as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval native woodland on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of unusual events here go back a long time – this woodland is titled for a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the distant past, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a UFO floating above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he states, addressing his guest with a smirk. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from worldwide, eager to feel the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be one of the world's premier hotspots for supernatural fans, the grove is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are campaigning for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Barring a small area housing locally rare specific tree species, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the company he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, motivating the government officials to recognise the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their boots, Marius recounts numerous local legends and reported supernatural events here.

• One famous story describes a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family picnic, only to reappear after five years with complete amnesia of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire shy of the slightest speck of soil.
• Regular stories detail cellphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions vary from complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals claim seeing unusual marks on their arms, detecting disembodied whispers through the trees, or experience hands grabbing them, despite being sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

While many of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, there is much before my eyes that is certainly unusual. All around are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to clarify the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the soil cause their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's walks allow participants to participate in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the meadow in the woods where Barnea captured his famous UFO images, he hands his guest an ghost-hunting device which registers energy patterns.

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

The vegetation immediately cease as we emerge into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's clear that it's not maintained, and appears that this strange clearing is natural, not the result of people.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a area which inspires creativity, where the border is indistinct between reality and legend. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to frighten regional populations.

The novelist's famous character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure located on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – feels real and understandable versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for reasons radioactive, environmental or purely mythical, a center for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide says, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is very thin."