🔗 Share this article

"People refer to this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, his exhalation producing puffs of condensation in the crisp evening air. "Countless individuals have disappeared here, many believe it's an entrance to a parallel world." The guide is leading a traveler on a night walk through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient local woods on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of strange happenings here extend back a long time – the grove is named after a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the distant past, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a flying saucer hovering above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he states, turning to the traveler with a smirk. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, traditional medicine people, ufologists and ghost hunters from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being a top global hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of more than 400,000 people, described as the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are expanding, and developers are campaigning for permission to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Barring a small area containing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is without conservation status, but the guide believes that the initiative he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, motivating the authorities to appreciate the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius tells various traditional stories and alleged supernatural events here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child going missing during a family outing, then to rematerialise half a decade later with no memory of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her garments without the smallest trace of dirt.
• Regular stories explain cellphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings include complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors state noticing strange rashes on their bodies, hearing ghostly voices through the forest, or experience palms pushing them, although sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the accounts may be hard to prove, there is much clearly observable that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are trees whose trunks are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Different theories have been suggested to explain the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radioactivity in the earth explain their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's tours allow participants to take part in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the opening in the woods where Barnea captured his renowned UFO pictures, he hands his guest an ghost-hunting device which measures electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most energetic part of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this unusual opening is organic, not the work of human hands.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a place which inspires creativity, where the line is indistinct between reality and legend. In traditional settlements faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, shapeshifting vampires, who return from burial sites to haunt local communities.

Bram Stoker's well-known vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a medieval building located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But including folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the land past the woods" – feels real and understandable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for causes related to radiation, climatic or purely mythical, a hub for fantasy projection.

"Inside these woods," Marius comments, "the division between truth and fantasy is remarkably blurred."