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"People refer to this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, his breath forming wisps of condensation in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "So many visitors have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to another dimension." The guide is guiding a visitor on a night walk through what is often described as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth local woods on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of strange happenings here date back centuries – the grove is named after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a flying saucer suspended above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But rest assured," he continues, turning to the visitor with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, shamans, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from worldwide, eager to feel the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, described as the innovation center of eastern Europe – are expanding, and developers are campaigning for authorization to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Barring a limited section home to area-specific oak varieties, the grove is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the organization he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the local administrators to appreciate the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

While branches and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide recounts various folk tales and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale recounts a young child going missing during a family outing, later to rematerialise five years later with no memory of her experience, showing no signs of aging a moment, her clothes shy of the slightest speck of dirt.
• Frequent accounts explain mobile phones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions vary from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Some people report observing unusual marks on their arms, hearing ghostly voices through the forest, or feel hands grabbing them, although sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the tales may be hard to prove, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. All around are plants whose bases are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to explain the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the soil cause their crooked growth.

But research studies have discovered inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's walks allow guests to engage in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the meadow in the woods where Barnea captured his renowned UFO photographs, he gives his guest an EMF meter which registers EMF readings.

"We're venturing into the most active section of the forest," he comments. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation abruptly end as they step into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's clear that it's not maintained, and appears that this strange clearing is wild, not the creation of human hands.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a location which stirs the imagination, where the line is indistinct between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise nearby villages.

The famous author's famous character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith perched on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But including folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for causes radioactive, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a center for fantasy projection.

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