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"People refer to this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains an experienced guide, his exhalation producing wisps of vapor in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "Countless visitors have disappeared here, some say it's an entrance to another dimension." The guide is escorting a guest on a evening stroll through commonly known as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth native woodland on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of bizarre occurrences here extend back a long time – the forest is called after a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the long ago, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a UFO suspended above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But don't worry," he continues, facing the traveler with a smirk. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from around the globe, interested in encountering the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, described as the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a small area containing locally rare oak varieties, this woodland is not officially protected, but the guide believes that the company he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, motivating the local administrators to recognise the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide recounts various traditional stories and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account tells of a young child going missing during a group gathering, then to rematerialise five years later with no recollection of what had happened, having not aged a single day, her clothes shy of the smallest trace of soil.
• Regular stories explain cellphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings range from absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Some people claim seeing strange rashes on their arms, detecting disembodied whispers through the forest, or experience palms pushing them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Although numerous of the tales may be hard to prove, numerous elements visibly present that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are trees whose stems are bent and twisted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been given to account for the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the ground cause their unusual development.

But formal examinations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's tours enable guests to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. When nearing the clearing in the trees where Barnea captured his famous UFO images, he passes the visitor an EMF meter which measures electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most energetic part of the forest," he says. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as they step into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's not maintained, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the work of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a place which inspires creativity, where the line is unclear between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to haunt regional populations.

The novelist's famous character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – feels real and understandable versus these eerie woods, which appear to be, for factors related to radiation, climatic or purely mythical, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," the guide comments, "the boundary between fact and fiction is very thin."