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"Locals dub this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his exhalation forming clouds of condensation in the crisp evening air. "So many visitors have vanished here, some say there's a gateway to a different realm." Marius is leading a traveler on a evening stroll through commonly known as the globe's spookiest grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth native woodland on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of strange happenings here date back a long time – the grove is titled for a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the distant past, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a unidentified flying object suspended above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But rest assured," he adds, turning to the visitor with a smile. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from across the world, eager to feel the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, described as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and real estate firms are pushing for authorization to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Barring a limited section housing area-specific oak varieties, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the organization he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, motivating the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their boots, the guide tells various local legends and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• One famous story tells of a young child disappearing during a group gathering, then to return half a decade later with no memory of the events, having not aged a moment, her clothes shy of the slightest speck of dust.
• Frequent accounts describe mobile phones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses vary from complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Some people report noticing strange rashes on their bodies, hearing ghostly voices through the trees, or experience hands grabbing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the accounts may be hard to prove, there is much before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. All around are trees whose bases are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the abnormal growth: strong gales could have altered the growth, or naturally high radiation levels in the earth explain their crooked growth.

But research studies have turned up inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's excursions enable participants to engage in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the clearing in the trees where Barnea took his famous UFO photographs, he hands his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most powerful part of the forest," he states. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as they step into a complete ring. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's clear that it's not maintained, and appears that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the work of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a place which stirs the imagination, where the line is blurred between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to haunt local communities.

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

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – feels solid and predictable versus the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for causes related to radiation, environmental or purely mythical, a center for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," Marius says, "the line between truth and fantasy is remarkably blurred."