🔗 Share this article

"People refer to this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath producing wisps of condensation in the crisp night air. "Countless visitors have disappeared here, it's thought it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is escorting a traveler on a evening stroll through what is often described as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth indigenous forest on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of bizarre occurrences here go back hundreds of years – the forest is named after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, together with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a UFO suspended above a round opening in the heart of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and never came out. But no need to fear," he continues, turning to the visitor with a smirk. "Our tours have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, spiritual healers, ufologists and supernatural researchers from across the world, curious to experience the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is one of the world's premier destinations for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, called the Silicon Valley of the region – are expanding, and developers are campaigning for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.

Aside from a small area home to area-specific oak varieties, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the authorities to recognise the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their boots, the guide recounts numerous traditional stories and reported supernatural events here.

• A popular tale tells of a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family picnic, only to reappear after five years with no recollection of the events, showing no signs of aging a single day, her clothes lacking the tiniest bit of soil.
• Regular stories describe smartphones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on entering the woods.
• Reactions vary from full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors report observing unusual marks on their skin, detecting ghostly voices through the trees, or experience fingers clutching them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the tales may be hard to prove, there are many things visibly present that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose trunks are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to account for the misshapen plants: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the earth cause their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have discovered insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

The guide's excursions allow participants to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the trees where Barnea captured his famous UFO images, he passes the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which detects energy patterns.

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

The plants suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this bizarre meadow is organic, not the work of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a location which stirs the imagination, where the border is unclear between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing creatures, who emerge from tombs to haunt regional populations.

The novelist's renowned vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a medieval building situated on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the count's residence".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – appears tangible and comprehensible in contrast to this spooky forest, which give the impression of being, for causes radioactive, climatic or entirely legendary, a center for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide states, "the division between reality and imagination is very thin."