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"People refer to this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a tour guide, his breath forming wisps of vapor in the cold evening air. "So many visitors have vanished here, many believe it's a portal to another dimension." Marius is guiding a guest on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval local woods on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of strange happenings here extend back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a UFO floating above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But rest assured," he states, facing his guest with a smile. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, shamans, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from worldwide, interested in encountering the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, called the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are campaigning for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a few hectares home to locally rare oak varieties, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius hopes that the organization he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, persuading the local administrators to appreciate the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their footwear, the guide recounts some of the folk tales and alleged supernatural events here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family outing, later to rematerialise five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, having not aged a day, her attire shy of the tiniest bit of soil.
• Frequent accounts describe mobile phones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Feelings vary from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals claim observing unusual marks on their bodies, perceiving ghostly voices through the forest, or sense palms pushing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

While many of the accounts may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose stems are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the deformed trees: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radiation levels in the earth account for their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have found inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's tours permit participants to participate in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the opening in the woods where Barnea captured his renowned UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures energy patterns.

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

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as they step into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this unusual opening is wild, not the result of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a area which inspires creativity, where the line is blurred between truth and myth. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting creatures, who rise from their graves to terrorise nearby villages.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building perched on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But including folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – appears tangible and comprehensible versus this spooky forest, which appear to be, for factors nuclear, climatic or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius comments, "the boundary between reality and imagination is very thin."