Exploring the Globe's Spookiest Forest: Twisted Trees, Unidentified Flying Objects and Chilling Accounts in Transylvania.

"Locals dub this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his exhalation creating wisps of vapor in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "Countless visitors have gone missing here, many believe it's an entrance to a parallel world." This expert is leading a traveler on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth native woodland on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of strange happenings here extend back a long time – this woodland is called after a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the distant past, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a UFO hovering above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But rest assured," he adds, addressing the traveler with a grin. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from across the world, curious to experience the mysterious powers believed to resonate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is among the planet's leading pilgrimage sites for supernatural fans, the grove is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, called the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are pushing for authorization to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Except for a limited section home to area-specific oak varieties, the forest is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the company he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, motivating the authorities to acknowledge the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius tells various local legends and claimed supernatural events here.

• A popular tale tells of a five-year-old girl disappearing during a group gathering, then to rematerialise after five years with complete amnesia of the events, having not aged a day, her attire lacking the slightest speck of dirt.
• Regular stories describe mobile phones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses vary from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors report noticing strange rashes on their skin, detecting ghostly voices through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Although numerous of the tales may be unverifiable, numerous elements clearly observable that is undeniably strange. Throughout the area are plants whose bases are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been given to clarify the deformed trees: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the earth explain their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have found inconclusive results.

The Notorious Meadow

Marius's walks enable visitors to take part in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the meadow in the woods where Barnea captured his well-known UFO photographs, he gives the visitor an ghost-hunting device which registers energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most powerful part of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The plants suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this unusual opening is wild, not the work of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a area which inspires creativity, where the border is unclear between fact and folklore. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, shapeshifting vampires, who return from burial sites to frighten nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's well-known vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure located on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – seems tangible and comprehensible compared to this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for factors related to radiation, climatic or simply folkloric, a center for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide comments, "the line between truth and fantasy is very thin."