🔗 Share this article

"Locals dub this location an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains an experienced guide, his exhalation producing clouds of mist in the chilly evening air. "So many visitors have vanished here, some say it's a portal to a different realm." This expert is escorting a guest on a evening stroll through commonly known as the world's most haunted forest: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth native woodland on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of strange happenings here go back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained global recognition in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea took a picture of what he described as a unidentified flying object suspended above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But don't worry," he continues, turning to the visitor with a smile. "Our guided walks have a 100% return rate."

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

Modern Threats

Despite being a top global destinations for supernatural fans, the forest is at risk. The western suburbs of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of eastern Europe – are advancing, and developers are pushing for approval to cut down the woods to construct residential buildings.

Except for a few hectares housing locally rare oak varieties, the forest is not officially protected, but Marius believes that the organization he helped establish – the Hoia-Baciu Project – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the local administrators to appreciate the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Chilling Events

As twigs and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide recounts various folk tales and claimed ghostly incidents here.

• A well-known account tells of a young child vanishing during a family picnic, only to rematerialise after five years with complete amnesia of her experience, showing no signs of aging a day, her garments lacking the slightest speck of dirt.
• More common reports describe mobile phones and camera equipment unexpectedly failing on entering the woods.
• Emotional responses range from full-blown dread to moments of euphoria.
• Various visitors claim noticing bizarre skin irritations on their bodies, detecting ghostly voices through the forest, or feel fingers clutching them, although sure they are alone.

Research Efforts

Despite several of the tales may be impossible to confirm, numerous elements clearly observable that is definitely bizarre. Throughout the area are vegetation whose stems are curved and contorted into fantastical shapes.

Different theories have been given to explain the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have altered the growth, or inherently elevated radiation levels in the soil cause their strange formation.

But research studies have found no satisfactory evidence.

The Notorious Meadow

The expert's tours allow guests to participate in a modest investigation of their own. When nearing the opening in the trees where Barnea took his renowned UFO photographs, he hands his guest an electromagnetic field detector which measures EMF readings.

"We're entering the most powerful section of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something."

The trees immediately cease as the group enters into a flawless round. The sole vegetation is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's not maintained, and appears that this bizarre meadow is natural, not the result of people.

The Blurred Line

This part of Romania is a area which fuels fantasy, where the line is blurred between reality and legend. In traditional settlements superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to haunt regional populations.

The novelist's famous vampire Count Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – an ancient structure situated on a cliff edge in the Transylvanian Alps – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But even legend-filled Transylvania – literally, "the territory after the grove" – seems real and understandable compared to these eerie woods, which seem to be, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or simply folkloric, a center for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," Marius states, "the division between fact and fiction is extremely fine."