🔗 Share this article

"They call this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains an experienced guide, his breath producing clouds of vapor in the cold dusk atmosphere. "So many visitors have gone missing here, it's thought it's an entrance to a parallel world." This expert is guiding a traveler on a night walk through what is often described as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval native woodland on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of bizarre occurrences here go back a long time – the forest is named after a regional herder who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a flying saucer hovering above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But don't worry," he adds, turning to his guest with a smirk. "Our excursions have a 100% return rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and paranormal investigators from worldwide, curious to experience the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Despite being a top global hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is facing danger. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of over 400,000 residents, described as the innovation center of eastern Europe – are advancing, and construction companies are advocating for authorization to clear the trees to erect housing complexes.

Barring a limited section home to locally rare Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is without conservation status, but Marius believes that the company he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, persuading the local administrators to recognise the forest's importance as a tourist attraction.

Chilling Events

As twigs and fall foliage snap and crunch beneath their boots, the guide recounts various folk tales and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale recounts a young child disappearing during a group gathering, only to return five years later with no memory of what had happened, having not aged a single day, her clothes without the tiniest bit of dust.
• More common reports explain cellphones and camera equipment mysteriously turning off on venturing inside.
• Reactions include full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors state seeing strange rashes on their arms, detecting unseen murmurs through the trees, or feel fingers clutching them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the stories may be unverifiable, there is much before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are vegetation whose bases are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Different theories have been given to account for the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the earth cause their unusual development.

But research studies have discovered insufficient proof.

The Legendary Opening

Marius's excursions permit visitors to participate in a small-scale research of their own. As we approach the opening in the trees where Barnea took his famous UFO photographs, he passes his guest an ghost-hunting device which registers energy patterns.

"We're entering the most energetic area of the forest," he states. "Discover what's here."

The plants suddenly stop dead as they step into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and seems that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the work of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

This part of Romania is a location which inspires creativity, where the division is unclear between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering creatures, who rise from their graves to terrorise nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's renowned vampire Count Dracula is always connected with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure situated on a stone formation in the mountain range – is actively advertised as "the vampire's home".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – feels solid and predictable compared to this spooky forest, which seem to be, for factors related to radiation, climatic or simply folkloric, a hub for creative energy.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide comments, "the division between fact and fiction is very thin."