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"They call this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, the air from his lungs forming clouds of mist in the cold evening air. "Numerous individuals have gone missing here, some say it's an entrance to a parallel world." Marius is escorting a guest on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of bizarre occurrences here go back a long time – this woodland is titled for a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the distant past, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a unidentified flying object floating above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But rest assured," he adds, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from worldwide, interested in encountering the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, known as the innovation center of the region – are encroaching, and developers are advocating for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Barring a small area home to area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but Marius is confident that the initiative he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the authorities to appreciate the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their boots, the guide recounts various local legends and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account describes a young child vanishing during a group gathering, then to return five years later with complete amnesia of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire shy of the smallest trace of dirt.
• More common reports explain mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses range from absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Some people state seeing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, perceiving ghostly voices through the trees, or experience hands grabbing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the accounts may be unverifiable, there are many things clearly observable that is undeniably strange. All around are trees whose bases are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to explain the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the earth explain their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have discovered insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's excursions allow participants to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the clearing in the forest where Barnea captured his well-known UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an ghost-hunting device which detects energy patterns.

"We're entering the most energetic section of the forest," he says. "See what you can find."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's not maintained, and appears that this unusual opening is natural, not the work of human hands.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a place which stirs the imagination, where the border is indistinct between truth and myth. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting vampires, who return from burial sites to terrorise local communities.

Bram Stoker's famous character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith located on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – appears solid and predictable versus these eerie woods, which seem to be, for factors radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," the guide comments, "the line between truth and fantasy is very thin."