🔗 Share this article

"People refer to this location a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a local guide, his breath producing clouds of vapor in the cold dusk atmosphere. "Countless visitors have gone missing here, some say there's a gateway to a parallel world." Marius is leading a guest on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of old-growth local woods on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of unusual events here go back centuries – the forest is called after a local shepherd who is said to have vanished in the long ago, accompanied by two hundred animals. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a unidentified flying object hovering above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.

Many came in here and vanished without trace. But rest assured," he adds, facing the visitor with a grin. "Our guided walks have a perfect safety record."

In the time after, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, spiritual healers, UFO researchers and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the mysterious powers said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of over 400,000 residents, described as the Silicon Valley of the region – are encroaching, and developers are pushing for authorization to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Aside from a limited section home to regionally uncommon oak varieties, the grove is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the organization he co-founded – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, encouraging the authorities to appreciate the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

As twigs and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their footwear, the guide tells some of the folk tales and claimed paranormal happenings here.

• A popular tale recounts a five-year-old girl going missing during a family outing, only to rematerialise half a decade later with no memory of the events, without aging a moment, her garments without the smallest trace of soil.
• Regular stories explain smartphones and photography gear inexplicably shutting down on stepping into the forest.
• Emotional responses vary from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors claim observing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, hearing ghostly voices through the trees, or experience hands grabbing them, although sure they are alone.

Scientific Investigations

While many of the stories may be hard to prove, there are many things before my eyes that is definitely bizarre. All around are plants whose stems are warped and gnarled into unusual forms.

Multiple explanations have been given to clarify the misshapen plants: powerful storms could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the ground explain their crooked growth.

But research studies have discovered inconclusive results.

The Famous Clearing

Marius's walks allow guests to participate in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the clearing in the forest where Barnea photographed his famous UFO photographs, he gives the traveler an EMF meter which detects energy patterns.

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

The trees suddenly stop dead as the group enters into a perfect circle. The sole vegetation is the low vegetation beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's naturally occurring, and seems that this unusual opening is natural, not the work of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a location which inspires creativity, where the division is indistinct between reality and legend. In traditional settlements faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, appearance-altering vampires, who return from burial sites to haunt regional populations.

Bram Stoker's famous character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is keenly marketed as "the count's residence".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – literally, "the place beyond the forest" – appears real and understandable versus these eerie woods, which appear to be, for reasons nuclear, climatic or purely mythical, a center for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius states, "the division between truth and fantasy is very thin."