🔗 Share this article

"They call this place an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a tour guide, the air from his lungs forming clouds of condensation in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Numerous visitors have gone missing here, it's thought there's a gateway to a parallel world." Marius is leading a traveler on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted woodland: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval native woodland on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of bizarre occurrences here date back a long time – the grove is titled for a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he claimed was a UFO suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he adds, addressing his guest with a smile. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from across the world, curious to experience the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is at risk. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, called the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are advocating for approval to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a small area housing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but the guide believes that the company he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, encouraging the government officials to acknowledge the forest's importance as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

When small sticks and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their footwear, the guide tells some of the local legends and alleged paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story recounts a little girl disappearing during a group gathering, then to return five years later with no recollection of the events, without aging a day, her attire lacking the smallest trace of dirt.
• More common reports detail smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Feelings vary from complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Certain individuals state seeing strange rashes on their bodies, hearing disembodied whispers through the forest, or experience palms pushing them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the tales may be unverifiable, there is much before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Everywhere you look are vegetation whose bases are bent and twisted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to account for the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the ground cause their crooked growth.

But formal examinations have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

Marius's tours enable visitors to participate in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the meadow in the woods where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he hands the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which detects electromagnetic fields.

"We're stepping into the most energetic section of the forest," he states. "Try to detect something."

The vegetation immediately cease as the group enters into a flawless round. The only greenery is the short grass beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this strange clearing is wild, not the creation of landscaping.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a area which inspires creativity, where the border is unclear between fact and folklore. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to frighten regional populations.

The famous author's renowned fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a Saxon monolith perched on a cliff edge in the mountain range – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".

But even folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – seems solid and predictable in contrast to these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for causes related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a center for creative energy.

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