Exploring the Globe's Spookiest Grove: Gnarled Trees, Flying Saucers and Chilling Accounts in Transylvania.

"People refer to this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains an experienced guide, the air from his lungs forming wisps of vapor in the chilly evening air. "Countless visitors have disappeared here, some say it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is leading a visitor on a evening stroll through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval local woods on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Stories of bizarre occurrences here go back centuries – the grove is called after a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a unidentified flying object suspended above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But don't worry," he continues, addressing the traveler with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from worldwide, interested in encountering the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be among the planet's leading hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for authorization to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Barring a few hectares home to locally rare specific tree species, the grove is without conservation status, but Marius is confident that the initiative he helped establish – a dedicated preservation group – will assist in altering this, encouraging the government officials to recognise the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide tells numerous local legends and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl going missing during a family picnic, then to rematerialise after five years with no memory of what had happened, having not aged a single day, her garments shy of the smallest trace of soil.
• Frequent accounts explain smartphones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings vary from absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals claim seeing strange rashes on their arms, perceiving unseen murmurs through the trees, or experience hands grabbing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

While many of the tales may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements clearly observable that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are trees whose bases are warped and gnarled into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been suggested to clarify the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the earth explain their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have discovered inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's excursions allow visitors to participate in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the clearing in the woods where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO images, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures electromagnetic fields.

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

The plants suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath our feet; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this strange clearing is wild, not the creation of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a location which stirs the imagination, where the line is indistinct between truth and myth. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing bloodsuckers, who rise from their graves to haunt nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's famous fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a medieval building located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – appears real and understandable versus these eerie woods, which seem to be, for factors radioactive, environmental or entirely legendary, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the boundary between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."