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"Locals dub this spot a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states a local guide, the air from his lungs forming wisps of mist in the chilly night air. "So many visitors have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to another dimension." The guide is leading a traveler on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth indigenous forest on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of bizarre occurrences here go back a long time – the grove is called after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu came to global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a flying saucer floating above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But rest assured," he continues, facing the traveler with a smirk. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yogis, shamans, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from worldwide, curious to experience the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be one of the world's premier hotspots for supernatural fans, the grove is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the innovation center of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Barring a small area home to locally rare oak varieties, the forest is not officially protected, but the guide believes that the company he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide tells various traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story describes a five-year-old girl going missing during a family picnic, only to rematerialise five years later with no memory of her experience, without aging a day, her clothes lacking the tiniest bit of dirt.
• Regular stories detail smartphones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Feelings include full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Some people report seeing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, hearing disembodied whispers through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the accounts may be hard to prove, numerous elements visibly present that is certainly unusual. All around are plants whose stems are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Different theories have been given to account for the abnormal growth: strong gales could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the soil cause their unusual development.

But formal examinations have discovered insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's tours allow participants to participate in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea took his well-known UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures EMF readings.

"We're entering the most active area of the forest," he comments. "See what you can find."

The plants suddenly stop dead as they step into a flawless round. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this strange clearing is natural, not the work of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a place which inspires creativity, where the line is blurred between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering creatures, who emerge from tombs to haunt regional populations.

Bram Stoker's well-known fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure located on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – seems real and understandable in contrast to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for factors radioactive, climatic or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.

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