🔗 Share this article Venturing into this Planet's Most Ghostly Grove: Twisted Trees, Flying Saucers and Eerie Tales in Romania's Legendary Region. "Locals dub this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, the air from his lungs creating wisps of mist in the chilly dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have gone missing here, some say it's a portal to another dimension." The guide is escorting a visitor on a nocturnal tour through commonly known as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval local woods on the edges of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca. Centuries of Mystery Reports of strange happenings here go back hundreds of years – the grove is titled for a area shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea photographed what he described as a flying saucer suspended above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest. Numerous entered this place and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he states, turning to his guest with a smile. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate." In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, shamans, ufologists and supernatural researchers from across the world, eager to feel the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest. Modern Threats Despite being a top global hotspots for paranormal enthusiasts, this woodland is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the innovation center of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are campaigning for approval to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks. Except for a small area containing regionally uncommon Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is not officially protected, but Marius believes that the company he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will help to change that, encouraging the government officials to recognise the forest's importance as a travel hotspot. Spooky Experiences When small sticks and autumn leaves split and rustle beneath their boots, the guide describes some of the local legends and claimed supernatural events here. A well-known account describes a little girl going missing during a family picnic, then to rematerialise half a decade later with complete amnesia of what had happened, having not aged a day, her garments without the slightest speck of soil. Regular stories detail cellphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods. Emotional responses include full-blown dread to states of ecstasy. Certain individuals claim observing strange rashes on their bodies, hearing unseen murmurs through the trees, or experience palms pushing them, even when convinced they're by themselves. Research Efforts Despite several of the stories may be unverifiable, numerous elements before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose trunks are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations. Multiple explanations have been given to explain the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the soil account for their crooked growth. But formal examinations have turned up insufficient proof. The Notorious Meadow The expert's excursions enable participants to engage in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the forest where Barnea photographed his well-known UFO pictures, he gives the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which measures electromagnetic fields. "We're entering the most powerful part of the forest," he comments. "Discover what's here." The trees suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a flawless round. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this unusual opening is natural, not the result of landscaping. Fact Versus Fiction The broader region is a location which fuels fantasy, where the line is blurred between truth and myth. In countryside villages faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting vampires, who emerge from tombs to terrorise local communities. The novelist's well-known character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home". But including legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – appears solid and predictable versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for causes radioactive, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a hub for fantasy projection. "In Hoia-Baciu," Marius says, "the division between reality and imagination is very thin."