Exploring the World's Most Haunted Grove: Contorted Trees, Unidentified Flying Objects and Spooky Stories in Romania's Legendary Region.

"They call this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, his exhalation forming puffs of mist in the crisp night air. "Numerous people have vanished here, some say it's a portal to a different realm." The guide is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth indigenous forest on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of strange happenings here go back a long time – the forest is called after a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the distant past, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a flying saucer floating above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But don't worry," he adds, turning to the traveler with a smirk. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, shamans, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from worldwide, curious to experience the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for authorization to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a limited section housing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is not officially protected, but Marius hopes that the initiative he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, persuading the local administrators to recognise the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius tells various traditional stories and reported ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale describes a little girl going missing during a family outing, only to reappear five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, having not aged a moment, her garments without the slightest speck of dirt.
• Frequent accounts detail mobile phones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Feelings include complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Some people report seeing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, detecting disembodied whispers through the trees, or experience palms pushing them, despite being sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

While many of the stories may be unverifiable, numerous elements before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are vegetation whose stems are bent and twisted into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been proposed to account for the abnormal growth: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radiation levels in the earth explain their strange formation.

But formal examinations have turned up insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's walks permit visitors to engage in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea took his famous UFO pictures, he gives the visitor an EMF meter which detects energy patterns.

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

The trees abruptly end as they step into a complete ring. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's clear that it's not maintained, and seems that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the result of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a place which fuels fantasy, where the border is blurred between fact and folklore. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting vampires, who emerge from tombs to terrorise local communities.

The famous author's well-known fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith situated on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – seems solid and predictable compared to the haunted grove, which appear to be, for factors radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a center for creative energy.

"Within this forest," Marius says, "the boundary between reality and imagination is extremely fine."