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"People refer to this spot an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath producing puffs of vapor in the crisp evening air. "Numerous individuals have disappeared here, some say there's a gateway to a parallel world." This expert is leading a visitor on a night walk through what is often described as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth indigenous forest on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Stories of strange happenings here go back a long time – the grove is titled for a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a flying saucer hovering above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But rest assured," he states, addressing the visitor with a grin. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from worldwide, curious to experience the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, the grove is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, called the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are advocating for approval to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Barring a small area home to regionally uncommon specific tree species, the grove is lacking legal protection, but Marius hopes that the company he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the government officials to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their boots, the guide tells various traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale tells of a five-year-old girl vanishing during a group gathering, later to reappear after five years with no memory of her experience, having not aged a day, her clothes without the slightest speck of dust.
• Regular stories describe cellphones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions include full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors state observing strange rashes on their bodies, perceiving disembodied whispers through the trees, or sense hands grabbing them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

While many of the tales may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been given to explain the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the soil account for their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

Marius's excursions permit participants to take part in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the opening in the forest where Barnea captured his renowned UFO images, he hands the visitor an ghost-hunting device which detects energy patterns.

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

The plants suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a complete ring. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and appears that this strange clearing is natural, not the work of people.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a location which stirs the imagination, where the line is unclear between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to haunt nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's famous character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure located on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for causes radioactive, climatic or entirely legendary, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," the guide says, "the division between reality and imagination is extremely fine."