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"They call this spot an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks an experienced guide, the air from his lungs producing puffs of vapor in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "So many individuals have vanished here, some say it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is escorting a guest on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth indigenous forest on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Stories of strange happenings here go back hundreds of years – the forest is named after a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a UFO suspended above a round opening in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But rest assured," he states, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, shamans, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from worldwide, eager to feel the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the tech capital of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and real estate firms are advocating for authorization to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Except for a few hectares home to locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is not officially protected, but the guide is confident that the organization he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the authorities to appreciate the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

As twigs and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius recounts some of the traditional stories and alleged supernatural events here.

• One famous story tells of a young child going missing during a family outing, then to return after five years with no recollection of the events, showing no signs of aging a day, her clothes without the slightest speck of soil.
• Frequent accounts detail cellphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Reactions vary from absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals report noticing strange rashes on their bodies, perceiving disembodied whispers through the trees, or sense palms pushing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Research Efforts

While many of the accounts may be hard to prove, there is much visibly present that is undeniably strange. All around are plants whose trunks are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the misshapen plants: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radiation levels in the earth account for their unusual development.

But research studies have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's walks permit visitors to take part in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the forest where Barnea took his famous UFO images, he gives the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which measures electromagnetic fields.

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

The trees suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and appears that this strange clearing is natural, not the creation of people.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a location which fuels fantasy, where the border is blurred between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to frighten nearby villages.

The famous author's well-known fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – actually, "the place beyond the forest" – appears real and understandable versus this spooky forest, which appear to be, for factors radioactive, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a hub for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide states, "the division between fact and fiction is extremely fine."