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"They call this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, the air from his lungs creating wisps of condensation in the cold night air. "Countless visitors have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to a parallel world." The guide is escorting a guest on a night walk through what is often described as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval native woodland on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of unusual events here date back centuries – the forest is titled for a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a flying saucer floating above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he states, facing the visitor with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

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

Contemporary Dangers

It may be a top global pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, the grove is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of the region – are encroaching, and real estate firms are campaigning for authorization to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Barring a small area home to area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the initiative he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, persuading the authorities to acknowledge the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

As twigs and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their shoes, Marius describes numerous traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child vanishing during a family outing, later to reappear after five years with no memory of the events, without aging a day, her clothes without the smallest trace of soil.
• More common reports describe mobile phones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Reactions include absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals state noticing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, detecting ghostly voices through the forest, or feel fingers clutching them, although sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the tales may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Throughout the area are plants whose bases are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to clarify the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have discovered inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's excursions permit participants to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the woods where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he hands the visitor an ghost-hunting device which registers electromagnetic fields.

"We're entering the most energetic part of the forest," he states. "Try to detect something."

The trees immediately cease as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this unusual opening is organic, not the result of people.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a place which inspires creativity, where the border is unclear between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting vampires, who emerge from tombs to terrorise local communities.

The novelist's well-known character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building situated on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – seems real and understandable in contrast to the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide states, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."