🔗 Share this article

"Locals dub this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a tour guide, the air from his lungs creating puffs of vapor in the cold dusk atmosphere. "So many individuals have gone missing here, some say there's a gateway to another dimension." This expert is leading a traveler on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval indigenous forest on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of strange happenings here extend back hundreds of years – the grove is titled for a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a UFO suspended above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But no need to fear," he continues, turning to his guest with a smirk. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, spiritual healers, ufologists and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be one of the world's premier destinations for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, called the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and real estate firms are pushing for permission to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a small area home to locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is not officially protected, but the guide is confident that the organization he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

As twigs and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius recounts some of the traditional stories and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• One famous story describes a little girl vanishing during a family outing, later to return after five years with complete amnesia of what had happened, without aging a single day, her attire shy of the smallest trace of soil.
• More common reports detail smartphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Reactions include absolute fear to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals state observing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, perceiving unseen murmurs through the woodland, or feel hands grabbing them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

While many of the tales may be hard to prove, there are many things before my eyes that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose stems are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been proposed to clarify the misshapen plants: strong gales could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated electromagnetic fields in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have turned up insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's tours enable visitors to participate in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the opening in the woods where Barnea captured his well-known UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures EMF readings.

"We're stepping into the most energetic section of the forest," he states. "See what you can find."

The plants immediately cease as the group enters into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and appears that this strange clearing is organic, not the creation of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a location which fuels fantasy, where the division is unclear between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to haunt regional populations.

The novelist's renowned character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "the count's residence".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – appears solid and predictable versus these eerie woods, which seem to be, for causes nuclear, climatic or entirely legendary, a hub for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide comments, "the division between truth and fantasy is very thin."