Delving into the Globe's Spookiest Forest: Gnarled Trees, UFOs and Chilling Accounts in Romania's Legendary Region.

"Locals dub this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains a local guide, the air from his lungs creating puffs of mist in the chilly night air. "Countless individuals have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to a different realm." This expert is guiding a guest on a night walk through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval local woods on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of strange happenings here date back hundreds of years – this woodland is named after a area shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a flying saucer suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he states, facing the visitor with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, traditional medicine people, ufologists and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is among the planet's leading destinations for supernatural fans, this woodland is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares home to locally rare specific tree species, the forest is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, encouraging the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their boots, the guide describes numerous folk tales and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account recounts a young child going missing during a family outing, only to return half a decade later with complete amnesia of the events, having not aged a moment, her garments shy of the slightest speck of dust.
• More common reports describe cellphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses vary from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Some people report observing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, perceiving ghostly voices through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the accounts may be hard to prove, there are many things visibly present that is undeniably strange. All around are plants whose trunks are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been given to account for the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or typically increased radiation levels in the soil cause their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's walks permit participants to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the trees where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he hands the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which measures electromagnetic fields.

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

The plants suddenly stop dead as they step into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and seems that this strange clearing is natural, not the result of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a area which fuels fantasy, where the line is indistinct between truth and myth. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's renowned vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building perched on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable versus this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius states, "the line between truth and fantasy is very thin."