🔗 Share this article

"They call this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his exhalation forming clouds of mist in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "Numerous individuals have gone missing here, many believe it's a portal to another dimension." The guide is leading a visitor on a night walk through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient local woods on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Accounts of unusual events here extend back a long time – this woodland is called after a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the distant past, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a unidentified flying object hovering above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and never came out. But don't worry," he adds, addressing the visitor with a smile. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from worldwide, interested in encountering the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be among the planet's leading destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of more than 400,000 people, known as the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are campaigning for authorization to remove the forest to construct residential buildings.

Barring a few hectares containing area-specific oak varieties, the forest is without conservation status, but Marius hopes that the company he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

As twigs and seasonal debris split and rustle beneath their footwear, Marius describes some of the local legends and alleged ghostly incidents here.

• A popular tale recounts a five-year-old girl vanishing during a group gathering, only to reappear after five years with complete amnesia of her experience, without aging a single day, her garments shy of the smallest trace of soil.
• More common reports detail smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Reactions range from absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals state noticing unusual marks on their skin, perceiving unseen murmurs through the forest, or experience palms pushing them, although sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Although numerous of the tales may be hard to prove, numerous elements clearly observable that is definitely bizarre. All around are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been given to explain the misshapen plants: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the earth account for their strange formation.

But formal examinations have turned up insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

Marius's excursions enable guests to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the trees where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO photographs, he passes his guest an ghost-hunting device which detects EMF readings.

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

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath the ground; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the work of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a area which inspires creativity, where the line is indistinct between reality and legend. In traditional settlements faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who return from burial sites to terrorise nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's famous vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure situated on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels real and understandable versus the haunted grove, which appear to be, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or entirely legendary, a hub for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius states, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is remarkably blurred."