Venturing into the World's Most Haunted Grove: Twisted Trees, Flying Saucers and Eerie Tales in Transylvania.

"They call this spot an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a tour guide, the air from his lungs producing wisps of vapor in the crisp evening air. "So many people have disappeared here, some say it's an entrance to a different realm." This expert is escorting a traveler on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth local woods on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of strange happenings here go back a long time – this woodland is named after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a flying saucer floating above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But rest assured," he states, addressing his guest with a smile. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, shamans, ufologists and supernatural researchers from across the world, curious to experience the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are pushing for authorization to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a few hectares home to locally rare oak varieties, this woodland is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the organization he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, persuading the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, Marius tells some of the traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale recounts a little girl disappearing during a family picnic, only to reappear after five years with no memory of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a day, her clothes lacking the tiniest bit of dirt.
• Frequent accounts explain mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings range from absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals report observing unusual marks on their arms, perceiving unseen murmurs through the trees, or feel hands grabbing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

While many of the tales may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is undeniably strange. All around are plants whose trunks are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the earth cause their strange formation.

But research studies have found insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

Marius's walks enable visitors to participate in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the trees where Barnea captured his renowned UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an EMF meter which measures energy patterns.

"We're entering the most active area of the forest," he says. "Discover what's here."

The trees suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a complete ring. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and appears that this unusual opening is natural, not the result of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a location which inspires creativity, where the border is blurred between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to terrorise local communities.

Bram Stoker's well-known vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – appears solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which appear to be, for reasons related to radiation, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a nexus for creative energy.

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