🔗 Share this article

"They call this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states a tour guide, the air from his lungs forming wisps of condensation in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "Countless individuals have vanished here, many believe there's a gateway to a different realm." The guide is leading a traveler on a evening stroll through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth indigenous forest on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of unusual events here extend back a long time – the forest is called after a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the long ago, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a flying saucer hovering above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he adds, addressing the visitor with a smile. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, shamans, ufologists and ghost hunters from around the globe, curious to experience the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being a top global pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, known as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for authorization to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Except for a few hectares home to area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the company he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to acknowledge the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

As twigs and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide describes some of the local legends and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account tells of a little girl vanishing during a group gathering, later to return five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, having not aged a moment, her attire without the smallest trace of soil.
• Frequent accounts detail smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Feelings vary from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors report observing unusual marks on their arms, hearing ghostly voices through the forest, or experience fingers clutching them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the tales may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements clearly observable that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are trees whose bases are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been given to explain the deformed trees: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or typically increased radiation levels in the soil account for their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's tours enable participants to participate in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the clearing in the forest where Barnea photographed his famous UFO pictures, he hands his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most active section of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something."

The trees suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this strange clearing is natural, not the creation of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a area which inspires creativity, where the border is indistinct between reality and legend. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering creatures, who return from burial sites to haunt regional populations.

The famous author's renowned character Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith located on a stone formation in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – seems solid and predictable versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for factors nuclear, climatic or purely mythical, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," the guide states, "the division between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."