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"They call this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, the air from his lungs producing clouds of mist in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "So many individuals have vanished here, many believe it's an entrance to a parallel world." Marius is escorting a guest on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient local woods on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of strange happenings here date back hundreds of years – the grove is titled for a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a unidentified flying object suspended above a circular clearing in the heart of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But no need to fear," he states, turning to the visitor with a smirk. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is under threat. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are campaigning for approval to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Barring a limited section home to locally rare oak varieties, this woodland is without conservation status, but the guide hopes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, motivating the government officials to acknowledge the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius tells numerous traditional stories and claimed supernatural events here.

• A well-known account tells of a little girl disappearing during a group gathering, then to reappear half a decade later with no memory of the events, having not aged a day, her garments without the smallest trace of dust.
• Frequent accounts explain smartphones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions include complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Some people claim noticing unusual marks on their bodies, hearing unseen murmurs through the forest, or feel fingers clutching them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there is much visibly present that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose stems are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been given to explain the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radioactivity in the earth explain their crooked growth.

But research studies have found insufficient proof.

The Notorious Meadow

Marius's excursions permit participants to take part in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the clearing in the woods where Barnea took his well-known UFO pictures, he hands the visitor an EMF meter which measures electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most active part of the forest," he says. "See what you can find."

The trees abruptly end as the group enters into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the work of human hands.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a area which fuels fantasy, where the border is unclear between fact and folklore. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering creatures, who emerge from tombs to frighten local communities.

The famous author'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 Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – seems tangible and comprehensible versus these eerie woods, which seem to be, for causes related to radiation, environmental or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the line between fact and fiction is extremely fine."