🔗 Share this article Delving into this Globe's Spookiest Forest: Twisted Trees, Flying Saucers and Spooky Stories in Romania's Legendary Region. "People refer to this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a tour guide, his exhalation creating wisps of condensation in the crisp evening air. "Numerous individuals have gone missing here, many believe it's a portal to another dimension." Marius is escorting a guest on a evening stroll through commonly known as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient indigenous forest on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca. Centuries of Mystery Reports of strange happenings here go back a long time – the grove is called after a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the long ago, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea captured on film what he reported as a flying saucer suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest. Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he adds, addressing his guest with a smile. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate." In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from across the world, curious to experience the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest. Modern Threats Despite being one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are advancing, and construction companies are pushing for approval to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks. Except for a limited section containing area-specific oak varieties, the forest is without conservation status, but Marius hopes that the organization he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, persuading the local administrators to acknowledge the forest's value as a tourist attraction. Chilling Events When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their boots, the guide tells numerous folk tales and claimed paranormal happenings here. A popular tale describes a young child disappearing during a family picnic, then to rematerialise half a decade later with complete amnesia of her experience, without aging a day, her attire without the smallest trace of dust. Frequent accounts describe cellphones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on entering the woods. Reactions vary from complete terror to feelings of joy. Some people claim observing strange rashes on their bodies, hearing disembodied whispers through the woodland, or sense hands grabbing them, despite being sure they are alone. Scientific Investigations While many of the stories may be hard to prove, there are many things clearly observable that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are vegetation whose trunks are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes. Various suggestions have been suggested to clarify the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radiation levels in the earth cause their strange formation. But formal examinations have discovered no satisfactory evidence. The Famous Clearing Marius's walks allow visitors to take part in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the clearing in the trees where Barnea captured his famous UFO images, he passes his guest an EMF meter which measures electromagnetic fields. "We're entering the most powerful part of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something." The vegetation immediately cease as the group enters into a complete ring. The sole vegetation is the short grass beneath the ground; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the result of people. Fact Versus Fiction Transylvania generally is a location which fuels fantasy, where the line is indistinct between fact and folklore. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing vampires, who emerge from tombs to haunt local communities. The novelist's renowned vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "the count's residence". But even legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – feels tangible and comprehensible in contrast to these eerie woods, which appear to be, for reasons related to radiation, climatic or simply folkloric, a center for human imaginative power. "Within this forest," Marius comments, "the boundary between fact and fiction is very thin."