🔗 Share this article

"People refer to this spot an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," states a tour guide, his exhalation creating clouds of vapor in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Countless people have disappeared here, many believe it's an entrance to a parallel world." Marius is escorting a traveler on a evening stroll through what is often described as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval native woodland on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of unusual events here date back a long time – the forest is named after a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the long ago, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when an army specialist named Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a UFO hovering above a round opening in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But no need to fear," he adds, facing the visitor with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn yogis, shamans, UFO researchers and paranormal investigators from worldwide, eager to feel the unusual forces said to echo through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is one of the world's premier destinations for supernatural fans, the grove is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, known as the tech capital of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and construction companies are campaigning for approval to cut down the woods to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a few hectares housing locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the company he was instrumental in creating – a dedicated preservation group – will assist in altering this, encouraging the authorities to appreciate the forest's value as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and seasonal debris snap and crunch beneath their boots, Marius tells numerous local legends and alleged supernatural events here.

• A popular tale describes a five-year-old girl going missing during a group gathering, only to return half a decade later with complete amnesia of the events, without aging a single day, her attire without the smallest trace of soil.
• Regular stories describe mobile phones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on entering the woods.
• Feelings range from complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals state seeing unusual marks on their arms, perceiving disembodied whispers through the woodland, or experience palms pushing them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the tales may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements visibly present that is certainly unusual. All around are trees whose bases are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been proposed to clarify the abnormal growth: strong gales could have altered the growth, or naturally high radioactivity in the earth explain their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have discovered inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's tours enable guests to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the woods where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO photographs, he hands the traveler an EMF meter which measures EMF readings.

"We're entering the most powerful 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 short grass beneath the ground; it's obvious that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this strange clearing is natural, not the result of people.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a area which fuels fantasy, where the line is indistinct between reality and legend. In traditional settlements belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, form-changing creatures, who return from burial sites to terrorise local communities.

Bram Stoker's well-known vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – an ancient structure located on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is actively advertised as "Dracula's Castle".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – seems tangible and comprehensible in contrast to the haunted grove, which seem to be, for factors nuclear, climatic or entirely legendary, a center for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," the guide says, "the division between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."