🔗 Share this article

"People refer to this spot a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, the air from his lungs creating puffs of condensation in the crisp evening air. "Countless individuals have gone missing here, it's thought it's a portal to a different realm." Marius is leading a guest on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval local woods on the edges of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of bizarre occurrences here date back centuries – this woodland is titled for a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, together with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a UFO suspended above a oval meadow in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But no need to fear," he states, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, shamans, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from around the globe, eager to feel the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being one of the world's premier hotspots for supernatural fans, this woodland is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, called the tech capital of the region – are encroaching, and construction companies are pushing for authorization to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a small area containing area-specific oak varieties, this woodland is not officially protected, but Marius is confident that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, persuading the government officials to appreciate the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

As twigs and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their shoes, Marius describes some of the traditional stories and alleged paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account tells of a young child vanishing during a family picnic, later to return half a decade later with no memory of her experience, having not aged a single day, her attire lacking the tiniest bit of dirt.
• Frequent accounts explain smartphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Reactions include absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals report seeing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, perceiving ghostly voices through the trees, or feel palms pushing them, although sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the accounts may be impossible to confirm, there are many things before my eyes that is undeniably strange. Everywhere you look are plants whose stems are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Different theories have been proposed to clarify the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or typically increased radioactivity in the soil cause their strange formation.

But scientific investigations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's excursions allow participants to take part in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the opening in the forest where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO photographs, he hands his guest an ghost-hunting device which registers EMF readings.

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

The vegetation immediately cease as they step into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and looks that this strange clearing is wild, not the work of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

Transylvania generally is a place which stirs the imagination, where the line is unclear between fact and folklore. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to terrorise nearby villages.

The famous author's famous fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith situated on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But despite myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – seems tangible and comprehensible compared to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or purely mythical, a nexus for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," the guide comments, "the boundary between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."