🔗 Share this article

"Locals dub this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," explains a local guide, his exhalation producing puffs of vapor in the crisp night air. "So many individuals have disappeared here, some say there's a gateway to another dimension." This expert is guiding a guest on a evening stroll through what is often described as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of primeval indigenous forest on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of bizarre occurrences here extend back a long time – this woodland is titled for a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the far-off times, accompanied by 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a flying saucer suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But don't worry," he adds, addressing his guest with a smirk. "Our guided walks have a flawless completion rate."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, shamans, ufologists and supernatural researchers from worldwide, curious to experience the strange energies reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

It may be a top global pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is under threat. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, known as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are pushing for authorization to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Except for a small area home to area-specific Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the company he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the authorities to acknowledge the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

When small sticks and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide tells numerous folk tales and reported paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale tells of a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family picnic, later to reappear five years later with no recollection of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a moment, her clothes without the smallest trace of soil.
• More common reports explain smartphones and camera equipment inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Reactions vary from complete terror to moments of euphoria.
• Certain individuals claim noticing unusual marks on their arms, perceiving unseen murmurs through the woodland, or experience palms pushing them, although certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the stories may be impossible to confirm, there are many things clearly observable that is undeniably strange. Throughout the area are trees whose stems are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to clarify the deformed trees: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the earth account for their crooked growth.

But scientific investigations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's walks enable visitors to participate in a small-scale research of their own. When nearing the opening in the trees where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he passes his guest an EMF meter which registers electromagnetic fields.

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

The trees abruptly end as the group enters into a flawless round. The only greenery is the low vegetation beneath our feet; it's clear that it's not maintained, and seems that this unusual opening is natural, not the result of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a area which inspires creativity, where the division is blurred between truth and myth. In traditional settlements faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting creatures, who rise from their graves to terrorise regional populations.

Bram Stoker's renowned vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building perched on a rocky outcrop in the Transylvanian Alps – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – feels tangible and comprehensible in contrast to these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for causes related to radiation, climatic or entirely legendary, a hub for fantasy projection.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius comments, "the line between fact and fiction is remarkably blurred."