🔗 Share this article Exploring this Planet's Most Ghostly Forest: Contorted Trees, UFOs and Chilling Accounts in Transylvania. "They call this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, the air from his lungs producing clouds of condensation in the crisp night air. "Countless individuals have disappeared here, some say there's a gateway to a different realm." The guide is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the globe's spookiest grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth indigenous forest on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca. Hundreds of Years of Enigma Reports of strange happenings here go back hundreds of years – the grove is called after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to global recognition in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a flying saucer floating above a round opening in the middle of the forest. Many came in here and never came out. But rest assured," he adds, facing his guest with a grin. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate." In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from around the globe, eager to feel the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest. Modern Threats It may be one of the world's premier destinations for supernatural fans, the forest is under threat. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the innovation center of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are campaigning for authorization to clear the trees to construct residential buildings. Aside from a small area housing regionally uncommon Mediterranean oak trees, the grove is lacking legal protection, but Marius is confident that the initiative he co-founded – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, motivating the authorities to acknowledge the forest's value as a visitor destination. Chilling Events While branches and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their shoes, the guide tells various local legends and reported ghostly incidents here. A well-known account recounts a little girl disappearing during a family outing, later to return half a decade later with no recollection of what had happened, having not aged a moment, her garments without the slightest speck of dirt. More common reports describe mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest. Emotional responses vary from full-blown dread to feelings of joy. Various visitors claim observing unusual marks on their skin, perceiving disembodied whispers through the trees, or experience hands grabbing them, despite being convinced they're by themselves. Research Efforts While many of the accounts may be unverifiable, there are many things before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. All around are plants whose trunks are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes. Various suggestions have been given to explain the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or naturally high radiation levels in the ground cause their unusual development. But research studies have discovered no satisfactory evidence. The Famous Clearing The guide's excursions permit guests to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the forest where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO photographs, he hands his guest an EMF meter which registers EMF readings. "We're entering the most active section of the forest," he comments. "See what you can find." The plants abruptly end as we emerge into a flawless round. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the creation of people. Between Reality and Imagination Transylvania generally is a area which inspires creativity, where the border is indistinct between truth and myth. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting creatures, who return from burial sites to haunt nearby villages. The novelist's famous fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building perched on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home". But even legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – appears solid and predictable in contrast to this spooky forest, which appear to be, for causes related to radiation, climatic or simply folkloric, a nexus for human imaginative power. "In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the line between truth and fantasy is extremely fine."