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"People refer to this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, the air from his lungs creating puffs of mist in the chilly night air. "So many people have gone missing here, many believe it's a portal to a different realm." The guide is escorting a traveler on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient indigenous forest on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of unusual events here date back a long time – the forest is titled for a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist known as Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a UFO suspended above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But rest assured," he continues, addressing his guest with a grin. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, spiritual healers, ufologists and supernatural researchers from across the world, curious to experience the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, known as the tech capital of the region – are advancing, and construction companies are advocating for permission to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Barring a few hectares housing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but the guide is confident that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

While branches and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide describes some of the folk tales and claimed supernatural events here.

• One famous story recounts a little girl vanishing during a family outing, then to rematerialise half a decade later with complete amnesia of her experience, having not aged a moment, her garments shy of the tiniest bit of dirt.
• Regular stories detail smartphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses vary from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals report observing strange rashes on their skin, detecting disembodied whispers through the woodland, or experience fingers clutching them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the stories may be hard to prove, there are many things visibly present that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are trees whose bases are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or typically increased radiation levels in the earth explain their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have found insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

Marius's tours allow visitors to engage in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the opening in the trees where Barnea took his well-known UFO photographs, he gives the visitor an ghost-hunting device which detects electromagnetic fields.

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

The trees suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and looks that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the result of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a location which fuels fantasy, where the border is unclear between reality and legend. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to haunt regional populations.

The famous author's famous vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – an ancient structure located on a stone formation in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – seems tangible and comprehensible versus these eerie woods, which appear to be, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the line between truth and fantasy is very thin."