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"They call this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a tour guide, his breath producing clouds of condensation in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "Countless individuals have vanished here, many believe it's a portal to another dimension." The guide is guiding a visitor on a night walk through commonly known as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth local woods on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Stories of unusual events here date back hundreds of years – the forest is named after a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a flying saucer suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But don't worry," he continues, facing the visitor with a smile. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, shamans, ufologists and paranormal investigators from across the world, eager to feel the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, called the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are pushing for authorization to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a small area containing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the company he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will help to change that, encouraging the government officials to acknowledge the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

As twigs and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their footwear, Marius recounts some of the folk tales and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale describes a little girl vanishing during a family outing, later to rematerialise five years later with complete amnesia of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a moment, her attire shy of the tiniest bit of dust.
• Frequent accounts explain cellphones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings range from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals state noticing strange rashes on their arms, detecting unseen murmurs through the woodland, or experience palms pushing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the accounts may be hard to prove, there are many things before my eyes that is undeniably strange. All around are trees whose stems are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the deformed trees: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the soil account for their unusual development.

But formal examinations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's walks permit visitors to participate in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the meadow in the trees where Barnea took his renowned UFO pictures, he hands his guest an ghost-hunting device which measures energy patterns.

"We're stepping into the most active area of the forest," he comments. "Try to detect something."

The trees suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this unusual opening is organic, not the work of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a location which inspires creativity, where the border is blurred between truth and myth. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting creatures, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

The novelist's well-known fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith perched on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – feels tangible and comprehensible versus this spooky forest, which appear to be, for causes nuclear, environmental or purely mythical, a hub for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide states, "the line between fact and fiction is extremely fine."