Delving into the World's Most Haunted Woodland: Contorted Trees, Unidentified Flying Objects and Spooky Stories in Romania's Legendary Region.

"Locals dub this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a local guide, his exhalation forming clouds of mist in the cold evening air. "Numerous visitors have disappeared here, many believe it's an entrance to a different realm." This expert is leading a visitor on a night walk through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient native woodland on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Accounts of strange happenings here date back a long time – the grove is named after a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the long ago, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a unidentified flying object suspended above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But no need to fear," he states, facing the visitor with a grin. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from across the world, interested in encountering the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be a top global destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of the region – are expanding, and developers are advocating for permission to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Except for a few hectares housing regionally uncommon oak varieties, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius hopes that the initiative he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the authorities to appreciate the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius tells some of the local legends and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale describes a little girl going missing during a group gathering, later to return half a decade later with complete amnesia of her experience, without aging a single day, her clothes without the tiniest bit of soil.
• More common reports describe mobile phones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions include absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors report noticing strange rashes on their bodies, detecting disembodied whispers through the woodland, or feel palms pushing them, despite being sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the tales may be hard to prove, there are many things clearly observable that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are trees whose stems are bent and twisted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to explain the misshapen plants: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radiation levels in the ground cause their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's excursions allow guests to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the trees where Barnea took his famous UFO photographs, he passes his guest an EMF meter which measures electromagnetic fields.

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

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a flawless round. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this strange clearing is organic, not the creation of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a location which stirs the imagination, where the division is indistinct between truth and myth. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing creatures, who emerge from tombs to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building situated on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – seems real and understandable compared to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for causes nuclear, climatic or purely mythical, a hub for fantasy projection.

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