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"People refer to this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his exhalation forming puffs of mist in the crisp night air. "So many people have gone missing here, it's thought there's a gateway to a different realm." The guide is escorting a guest on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of old-growth indigenous forest on the fringes of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here date back hundreds of years – this woodland is titled for a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a UFO hovering above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he states, turning to the traveler with a smirk. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from worldwide, eager to feel the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Modern Threats

It may be a top global destinations for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is facing danger. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, described as the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are campaigning for permission to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a limited section home to regionally uncommon specific tree species, the grove is without conservation status, but Marius is confident that the company he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, encouraging the government officials to appreciate the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide tells some of the local legends and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family picnic, later to return after five years with no memory of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her garments shy of the smallest trace of dirt.
• Frequent accounts detail mobile phones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Reactions range from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals state observing unusual marks on their skin, detecting disembodied whispers through the trees, or feel palms pushing them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the tales may be unverifiable, there are many things before my eyes that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose bases are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been proposed to clarify the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or typically increased radiation levels in the ground explain their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's tours enable guests to take part in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the opening in the trees where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO images, he gives his guest an electromagnetic field detector which detects energy patterns.

"We're stepping into the most powerful area of the forest," he says. "See what you can find."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a flawless round. The single plant life is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this unusual opening is organic, not the work of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a place which inspires creativity, where the line is indistinct between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to haunt regional populations.

The novelist's renowned vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure located on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – appears solid and predictable versus the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for causes nuclear, climatic or purely mythical, a hub for creative energy.

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