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"Locals dub this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains an experienced guide, his exhalation producing wisps of vapor in the chilly night air. "Numerous people have disappeared here, many believe it's an entrance to a different realm." This expert is leading a guest on a night walk through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient local woods on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of strange happenings here go back a long time – the forest is called after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a UFO suspended above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But don't worry," he states, addressing his guest with a smile. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from worldwide, interested in encountering the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the tech capital of the region – are advancing, and construction companies are advocating for permission to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Except for a limited section home to regionally uncommon oak varieties, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their shoes, Marius describes some of the local legends and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale describes a five-year-old girl going missing during a family picnic, later to reappear five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, showing no signs of aging a single day, her clothes shy of the tiniest bit of dust.
• Frequent accounts detail smartphones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings include absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Some people report noticing unusual marks on their skin, perceiving ghostly voices through the forest, or feel palms pushing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the accounts may be hard to prove, there are many things visibly present that is undeniably strange. All around are vegetation whose stems are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the earth cause their strange formation.

But research studies have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

Marius's tours allow guests to take part in a little scientific inquiry of their own. When nearing the meadow in the woods where Barnea captured his renowned UFO images, he gives his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects electromagnetic fields.

"We're venturing into the most powerful part of the forest," he states. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation abruptly end as they step into a complete ring. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the creation of human hands.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a location which stirs the imagination, where the line is unclear between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing creatures, who emerge from tombs to terrorise nearby villages.

The famous author's renowned fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building perched on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – feels real and understandable versus these eerie woods, which seem to be, for causes radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide comments, "the line between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."