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"Locals dub this spot an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, the air from his lungs producing wisps of condensation in the cold evening air. "Countless people have gone missing here, many believe it's an entrance to another dimension." The guide is escorting a visitor on a evening stroll through commonly known as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth indigenous forest on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Stories of bizarre occurrences here go back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a UFO suspended above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But no need to fear," he states, facing his guest with a smile. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from around the globe, eager to feel the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being among the planet's leading hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of the region – are expanding, and construction companies are campaigning for permission to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Barring a limited section containing regionally uncommon Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is without conservation status, but the guide is confident that the company he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the government officials to appreciate the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

While branches and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their footwear, the guide describes various traditional stories and reported ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a group gathering, then to rematerialise after five years with no memory of the events, having not aged a single day, her clothes lacking the slightest speck of dust.
• Frequent accounts explain cellphones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses range from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors state seeing unusual marks on their skin, detecting unseen murmurs through the trees, or sense fingers clutching them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, there are many things clearly observable that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose bases are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been proposed to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radioactivity in the earth cause their strange formation.

But formal examinations have found insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's excursions allow visitors to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. When nearing the opening in the forest where Barnea took his famous UFO photographs, he gives his guest an ghost-hunting device which measures energy patterns.

"We're stepping into the most energetic section of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The trees immediately cease as the group enters into a flawless round. The single plant life is the short grass beneath the ground; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this unusual opening is natural, not the result of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a place which fuels fantasy, where the border is blurred between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to haunt local communities.

Bram Stoker's renowned character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building situated on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is actively advertised as "the count's residence".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – appears tangible and comprehensible versus this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide states, "the boundary between fact and fiction is extremely fine."