"They call this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his exhalation producing puffs of mist in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Numerous people have vanished here, it's thought it's an entrance to another dimension." The guide is leading a traveler on a evening stroll through commonly known as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth indigenous forest on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.
Reports of unusual events here date back hundreds of years – the forest is called after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a unidentified flying object floating above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.
Many came in here and never came out. But don't worry," he continues, addressing his guest with a grin. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."
In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, spiritual healers, ufologists and ghost hunters from across the world, curious to experience the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.
Despite being a top global hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, known as the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are pushing for approval to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.
Barring a limited section home to area-specific specific tree species, this woodland is without conservation status, but the guide hopes that the organization he co-founded – a dedicated preservation group – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the government officials to recognise the forest's value as a travel hotspot.
As twigs and seasonal debris split and rustle beneath their boots, Marius tells various folk tales and reported paranormal happenings here.
Although numerous of the stories may be hard to prove, numerous elements visibly present that is certainly unusual. All around are trees whose bases are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.
Various suggestions have been given to account for the abnormal growth: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radioactivity in the ground cause their unusual development.
But scientific investigations have discovered insufficient proof.
The guide's tours permit guests to participate in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the clearing in the woods where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO pictures, he gives his guest an ghost-hunting device which measures electromagnetic fields.
"We're venturing into the most active section of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something."
The vegetation abruptly end as the group enters into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this unusual opening is wild, not the work of landscaping.
This part of Romania is a area which inspires creativity, where the border is blurred between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to terrorise local communities.
The novelist's famous character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – an ancient structure perched on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".
But even legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – feels real and understandable compared to the haunted grove, which appear to be, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.
"Inside these woods," the guide comments, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is remarkably blurred."
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