Venturing into the World's Most Haunted Woodland: Contorted Trees, Flying Saucers and Chilling Accounts in Romania's Legendary Region.

"Locals dub this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, the air from his lungs producing wisps of vapor in the chilly night air. "So many visitors have gone missing here, some say it's an entrance to a parallel world." This expert is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient local woods on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of bizarre occurrences here extend back a long time – this woodland is named after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a UFO hovering above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But don't worry," he adds, facing the traveler with a grin. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from worldwide, interested in encountering the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be one of the world's premier hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, described as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are campaigning for approval to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a limited section housing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the organization he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, persuading the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius recounts numerous local legends and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• One famous story tells of a little girl disappearing during a family picnic, then to rematerialise half a decade later with no recollection of what had happened, having not aged a day, her attire lacking the smallest trace of dirt.
• More common reports describe cellphones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Reactions include complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals state noticing unusual marks on their bodies, hearing disembodied whispers through the forest, or experience fingers clutching them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the accounts may be unverifiable, there is much visibly present that is definitely bizarre. Throughout the area are vegetation whose bases are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been suggested to clarify the deformed trees: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radiation levels in the ground cause their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have discovered inconclusive results.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's tours allow visitors to participate in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the clearing in the forest where Barnea captured his well-known UFO images, he gives his guest an ghost-hunting device which detects energy patterns.

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

The vegetation abruptly end as they step into a complete ring. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the creation of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a location which inspires creativity, where the border is unclear between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering creatures, who emerge from tombs to frighten local communities.

The famous author's well-known character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith situated on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for reasons related to radiation, climatic or purely mythical, a nexus for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the division between fact and fiction is extremely fine."