🔗 Share this article

"They call this location the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a local guide, his breath forming wisps of condensation in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have gone missing here, it's thought there's a gateway to a parallel world." This expert is guiding a traveler on a night walk through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient indigenous forest on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here go back hundreds of years – this woodland is titled for a area shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a unidentified flying object suspended above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he adds, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from around the globe, eager to feel the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, known as the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are advancing, and real estate firms are pushing for authorization to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Barring a small area housing area-specific oak varieties, the forest is not officially protected, but Marius believes that the company he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, motivating the authorities to appreciate the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their boots, Marius describes various local legends and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account tells of a five-year-old girl disappearing during a family picnic, later to rematerialise half a decade later with no recollection of what had happened, having not aged a moment, her clothes shy of the slightest speck of dust.
• Frequent accounts describe mobile phones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses include absolute fear to moments of euphoria.
• Some people state observing unusual marks on their skin, perceiving ghostly voices through the trees, or feel hands grabbing them, although sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the stories may be impossible to confirm, there is much visibly present that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are vegetation whose stems are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been suggested to explain the deformed trees: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The guide's tours enable participants to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the woods where Barnea took his famous UFO photographs, he passes his guest an ghost-hunting device which detects EMF readings.

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

The trees immediately cease as they step into a complete ring. The single plant life is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and looks that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the work of human hands.

The Blurred Line

Transylvania generally is a place which stirs the imagination, where the border is blurred between truth and myth. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering creatures, who return from burial sites to haunt local communities.

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

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – feels real and understandable in contrast to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for factors related to radiation, environmental or entirely legendary, a nexus for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," Marius says, "the division between reality and imagination is very thin."