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"They call this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, the air from his lungs creating clouds of vapor in the cold night air. "Numerous visitors have disappeared here, many believe it's a portal to a parallel world." Marius is guiding a guest on a night walk through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval indigenous forest on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of unusual events here extend back a long time – the forest is called after a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a unidentified flying object suspended above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But don't worry," he adds, facing his guest with a grin. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, shamans, ufologists and ghost hunters from worldwide, eager to feel the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is a top global pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is facing danger. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are advancing, and real estate firms are campaigning for permission to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Except for a small area housing regionally uncommon specific tree species, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the company he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, persuading the government officials to appreciate the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their boots, the guide tells numerous traditional stories and claimed supernatural events here.

• A popular tale tells of a little girl disappearing during a group gathering, only to rematerialise five years later with complete amnesia of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a single day, her garments lacking the slightest speck of dirt.
• More common reports describe smartphones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses vary from complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals state noticing strange rashes on their arms, perceiving disembodied whispers through the trees, or sense palms pushing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

Although numerous of the accounts may be unverifiable, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. All around are vegetation whose trunks are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

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

But formal examinations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's excursions enable guests to take part in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the meadow in the woods where Barnea photographed his famous UFO images, he passes the visitor an EMF meter which measures EMF readings.

"We're entering the most active section of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something."

The plants abruptly end as we emerge into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath the ground; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this unusual opening is organic, not the creation of human hands.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a area which stirs the imagination, where the division is indistinct between reality and legend. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to frighten nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's famous character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith situated on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – seems solid and predictable in contrast to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for reasons radioactive, atmospheric or purely mythical, a nexus for creative energy.

"Inside these woods," the guide states, "the line between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."