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"People refer to this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a tour guide, his breath creating wisps of condensation in the chilly evening air. "So many individuals have vanished here, it's thought there's a gateway to a parallel world." Marius is leading a traveler on a night walk through what is often described as the globe's spookiest grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval indigenous forest on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of bizarre occurrences here go back a long time – the grove is called after a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a unidentified flying object floating above a round opening in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he continues, facing his guest with a smile. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, shamans, ufologists and supernatural researchers from across the world, curious to experience the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being among the planet's leading hotspots for supernatural fans, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and construction companies are campaigning for authorization to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a limited section housing area-specific specific tree species, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the initiative he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, motivating the local administrators to recognise the forest's significance as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

While branches and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius describes various folk tales and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account recounts a little girl going missing during a family picnic, later to rematerialise after five years with no memory of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her attire lacking the slightest speck of dirt.
• Frequent accounts explain cellphones and imaging devices mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses include full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors claim observing strange rashes on their arms, perceiving ghostly voices through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, although sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the stories may be hard to prove, numerous elements before my eyes that is undeniably strange. All around are trees whose trunks are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been proposed to explain the deformed trees: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the ground account for their unusual development.

But formal examinations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's excursions permit participants to participate in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the clearing in the forest where Barnea captured his famous UFO photographs, he gives his guest an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields.

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

The trees suddenly stop dead as they step into a complete ring. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the creation of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a area which inspires creativity, where the border is unclear between truth and myth. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering creatures, who return from burial sites to terrorise nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's renowned fictional vampire is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure located on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – appears real and understandable in contrast to the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or purely mythical, a center for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide says, "the line between fact and fiction is very thin."