🔗 Share this article Delving into the World's Most Haunted Grove: Contorted Trees, Flying Saucers and Spooky Stories in Romania's Legendary Region. "Locals dub this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, his breath producing wisps of condensation in the crisp night air. "Countless people have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to another dimension." The guide is guiding a traveler on a evening stroll through commonly known as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of ancient indigenous forest on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca. Centuries of Mystery Stories of strange happenings here go back centuries – this woodland is called after a area shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained worldwide fame in 1968, when an army specialist known as Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a flying saucer floating above a circular clearing in the heart of the forest. Countless ventured inside and never came out. But don't worry," he adds, addressing his guest with a smirk. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate." In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in meditation experts, shamans, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from around the globe, curious to experience the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest. Contemporary Dangers It may be one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for lovers of the paranormal, the forest is at risk. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, called the tech capital of eastern Europe – are expanding, and construction companies are advocating for authorization to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes. Aside from a few hectares home to regionally uncommon oak varieties, the forest is without conservation status, but the guide hopes that the organization he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, motivating the authorities to recognise the forest's significance as a tourist attraction. Eerie Encounters When small sticks and fall foliage split and rustle beneath their boots, Marius tells numerous traditional stories and alleged ghostly incidents here. One famous story describes a young child going missing during a group gathering, only to reappear after five years with complete amnesia of her experience, without aging a single day, her garments shy of the tiniest bit of soil. Frequent accounts detail smartphones and photography gear mysteriously turning off on entering the woods. Reactions range from absolute fear to states of ecstasy. Various visitors claim noticing strange rashes on their arms, hearing ghostly voices through the forest, or sense hands grabbing them, even when sure they are alone. Research Efforts While many of the stories may be impossible to confirm, there is much visibly present that is definitely bizarre. Throughout the area are trees whose stems are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations. Different theories have been proposed to clarify the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radiation levels in the earth account for their strange formation. But scientific investigations have turned up inconclusive results. The Legendary Opening The expert's walks enable guests to engage in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the meadow in the trees where Barnea took his well-known UFO images, he gives his guest an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields. "We're venturing into the most energetic section of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something." The trees abruptly end as we emerge into a flawless round. The single plant life is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's clear that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this unusual opening is wild, not the work of human hands. The Blurred Line Transylvania generally is a location which fuels fantasy, where the line is unclear between fact and folklore. In rural Romanian communities superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to haunt local communities. The famous author's famous character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – an ancient structure situated on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home". But including folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – feels tangible and comprehensible in contrast to the haunted grove, which appear to be, for reasons related to radiation, atmospheric or purely mythical, a nexus for fantasy projection. "Within this forest," the guide says, "the line between truth and fantasy is remarkably blurred."