🔗 Share this article

"Locals dub this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his breath producing clouds of mist in the chilly night air. "Numerous people have gone missing here, many believe there's a gateway to a parallel world." The guide is escorting a traveler on a night walk through commonly known as the globe's spookiest forest: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of ancient local woods on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of strange happenings here extend back a long time – this woodland is named after a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the distant past, along with two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a defense worker named Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a UFO suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and never came out. But no need to fear," he states, facing the traveler with a smirk. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from across the world, curious to experience the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Modern Threats

Although it is one of the world's premier pilgrimage sites for supernatural fans, the grove is facing danger. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of over 400,000 residents, known as the Silicon Valley of the region – are expanding, and real estate firms are campaigning for authorization to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Except for a limited section housing area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the organization he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, encouraging the government officials to acknowledge the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and fall foliage split and rustle beneath their footwear, Marius recounts some of the traditional stories and reported paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story describes a little girl disappearing during a group gathering, then to return half a decade later with no recollection of her experience, having not aged a moment, her garments shy of the smallest trace of soil.
• More common reports explain mobile phones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on stepping into the forest.
• Reactions vary from full-blown dread to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors state noticing bizarre skin irritations on their skin, perceiving unseen murmurs through the woodland, or feel hands grabbing them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are plants whose stems are curved and contorted into unusual forms.

Different theories have been given to account for the deformed trees: strong gales could have shaped the young trees, or typically increased radiation levels in the soil explain their unusual development.

But formal examinations have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Legendary Opening

Marius's walks allow visitors to engage in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the opening in the trees where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO pictures, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which registers EMF readings.

"We're venturing into the most energetic section of the forest," he comments. "Discover what's here."

The trees abruptly end as they step into a perfect circle. The only greenery is the short grass beneath the ground; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and looks that this strange clearing is wild, not the creation of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

The broader region is a area which stirs the imagination, where the border is indistinct between fact and folklore. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to haunt regional populations.

The novelist's famous character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – a Saxon monolith situated on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – seems tangible and comprehensible in contrast to this spooky forest, which appear to be, for factors nuclear, environmental or entirely legendary, a hub for creative energy.

"Inside these woods," Marius says, "the division between fact and fiction is extremely fine."