🔗 Share this article

"People refer to this spot a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, his exhalation producing clouds of mist in the cold night air. "Countless visitors have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to a different realm." The guide is leading a guest on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval native woodland on the edges of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Accounts 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 long ago, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when an army specialist called Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a flying saucer hovering above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But no need to fear," he continues, addressing his guest with a smirk. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and ghost hunters from around the globe, eager to feel the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being a top global hotspots for supernatural fans, this woodland is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are advocating for authorization to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Barring a few hectares containing regionally uncommon oak varieties, the forest is lacking legal protection, but the guide hopes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, persuading the government officials to appreciate the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

When small sticks and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius describes various local legends and claimed supernatural events here.

• A well-known account recounts a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family outing, later to reappear five years later with no memory of her experience, without aging a moment, her attire without the slightest speck of dirt.
• More common reports detail mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Feelings vary from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Certain individuals report noticing unusual marks on their skin, perceiving disembodied whispers through the forest, or experience palms pushing them, even when sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the tales may be unverifiable, there is much clearly observable that is certainly unusual. All around are trees whose bases are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Various suggestions have been proposed to clarify the abnormal growth: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high radiation levels in the earth account for their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have discovered no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's excursions permit guests to participate in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the meadow in the forest where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an EMF meter which measures energy patterns.

"We're venturing into the most active section of the forest," he says. "Discover what's here."

The vegetation immediately cease as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's not maintained, and looks that this strange clearing is wild, not the result of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a area which stirs the imagination, where the division is blurred between fact and folklore. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who rise from their graves to terrorise nearby villages.

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

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – seems solid and predictable versus the haunted grove, which seem to be, for factors nuclear, environmental or entirely legendary, a center for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the line between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."