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"They call this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his breath forming wisps of vapor in the chilly night air. "Numerous individuals have vanished here, it's thought it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is leading a guest on a evening stroll through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval native woodland on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of strange happenings here extend back centuries – this woodland is titled for a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist known as Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a flying saucer suspended above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But no need to fear," he adds, addressing the visitor with a grin. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, shamans, ufologists and ghost hunters from worldwide, eager to feel the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is a top global hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, known as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are advocating for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Except for a small area home to area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a dedicated preservation group – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their footwear, the guide describes numerous local legends and claimed supernatural events here.

• One famous story tells of a little girl disappearing during a family picnic, then to reappear after five years with no memory of her experience, showing no signs of aging a day, her garments lacking the slightest speck of dust.
• More common reports explain mobile phones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Reactions vary from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Some people claim seeing unusual marks on their skin, hearing ghostly voices through the trees, or experience hands grabbing them, despite being sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the accounts may be hard to prove, there is much before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. All around are plants whose stems are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or typically increased radiation levels in the earth account for their strange formation.

But research studies have turned up inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's walks enable participants to participate in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the clearing in the forest where Barnea took his famous UFO images, he gives the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which measures EMF readings.

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

The vegetation immediately cease as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and looks that this unusual opening is organic, not the result of people.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a location which stirs the imagination, where the line is indistinct between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing creatures, who return from burial sites to frighten nearby villages.

The famous author's well-known character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith located on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – seems solid and predictable in contrast to this spooky forest, which appear to be, for causes radioactive, atmospheric or purely mythical, a nexus for fantasy projection.

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