🔗 Share this article

"People refer to this place the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a local guide, his breath forming puffs of mist in the crisp night air. "So many individuals have disappeared here, it's thought it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is guiding a traveler on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of ancient native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Reports of strange happenings here date back a long time – this woodland is named after a regional herder who is believed to have disappeared in the far-off times, together with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu came to worldwide fame in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he reported as a flying saucer hovering above a oval meadow in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he states, addressing the visitor with a smirk. "Our tours have a flawless completion rate."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted meditation experts, traditional medicine people, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the mysterious powers reported to reverberate through the forest.

Contemporary Dangers

Although it is a top global hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland 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 expanding, and developers are advocating for authorization to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Except for a small area containing area-specific oak varieties, this woodland is not officially protected, but the guide believes that the initiative he was instrumental in creating – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will assist in altering this, motivating the government officials to recognise the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and fall foliage break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius recounts numerous folk tales and reported paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story tells of a little girl vanishing during a group gathering, only to rematerialise after five years with no recollection of her experience, having not aged a moment, her attire shy of the smallest trace of dirt.
• More common reports explain smartphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses vary from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Some people report noticing unusual marks on their arms, hearing ghostly voices through the woodland, or experience fingers clutching them, even when convinced they're by themselves.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the tales may be impossible to confirm, there is much before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. Everywhere you look are plants whose stems are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been proposed to explain the deformed trees: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or typically increased electromagnetic fields in the earth cause their unusual development.

But formal examinations have turned up inconclusive results.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's walks permit guests to engage in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the forest where Barnea photographed his renowned UFO photographs, he gives the visitor an EMF meter which detects electromagnetic fields.

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

The trees abruptly end as they step into a complete ring. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's apparent that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the work of human hands.

Fact Versus Fiction

This part of Romania is a area which stirs the imagination, where the border is unclear between reality and legend. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering creatures, who return from burial sites to haunt nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's well-known character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building perched on a cliff edge in the mountain range – is actively advertised as "the count's residence".

But including legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the land past the woods" – seems solid and predictable versus this spooky forest, which appear to be, for causes related to radiation, environmental or purely mythical, a center for human imaginative power.

"Inside these woods," the guide comments, "the boundary between reality and imagination is extremely fine."