🔗 Share this article

"Locals dub this spot the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania," states a local guide, his exhalation producing puffs of vapor in the chilly evening air. "Numerous people have disappeared here, many believe there's a gateway to a parallel world." This expert is escorting a traveler on a night walk through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest grove: Hoia-Baciu, a square mile of old-growth local woods on the fringes of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Centuries of Mystery

Stories of unusual events here date back centuries – the grove is titled for a local shepherd who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, accompanied by his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu came to international attention in 1968, when a defense worker known as Emil Barnea captured on film what he claimed was a flying saucer hovering above a round opening in the middle of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But no need to fear," he states, facing the traveler with a smile. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yoga practitioners, traditional medicine people, ufologists and supernatural researchers from around the globe, eager to feel the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is one of the world's premier hotspots for lovers of the paranormal, the grove is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of more than 400,000 people, described as the innovation center of the region – are encroaching, and construction companies are advocating for permission to clear the trees to build apartment blocks.

Aside from a small area housing area-specific oak varieties, the grove is without conservation status, but Marius is confident that the company he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, encouraging the local administrators to appreciate the forest's significance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

While branches and autumn leaves break and crackle beneath their boots, Marius describes various folk tales and alleged paranormal happenings here.

• A well-known account recounts a little girl disappearing during a family picnic, later to reappear after five years with no memory of the events, having not aged a single day, her clothes lacking the smallest trace of dirt.
• Regular stories detail smartphones and photography gear unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Feelings include absolute fear to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors report seeing bizarre skin irritations on their skin, detecting unseen murmurs through the woodland, or feel hands grabbing them, although convinced they're by themselves.

Scientific Investigations

Despite several of the accounts may be unverifiable, there is much before my eyes that is undeniably strange. All around are trees whose trunks are bent and twisted into bizarre configurations.

Various suggestions have been suggested to clarify the deformed trees: powerful storms could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the earth account for their unusual development.

But research studies have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's excursions enable visitors to engage in a modest investigation of their own. As we approach the meadow in the woods where Barnea took his famous UFO pictures, he hands the visitor an ghost-hunting device which measures EMF readings.

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

The vegetation immediately cease as the group enters into a flawless round. The only greenery is the short grass beneath their shoes; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and looks that this strange clearing is natural, not the result of landscaping.

Between Reality and Imagination

The broader region is a place which inspires creativity, where the border is blurred between fact and folklore. In countryside villages belief persists in strigoi ("screamers") – undead, appearance-altering creatures, who rise from their graves to terrorise regional populations.

The famous author's renowned fictional vampire is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith located on a rocky outcrop in the mountain range – is heavily promoted as "Dracula's Castle".

But even myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – feels solid and predictable versus the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for causes nuclear, climatic or simply folkloric, a center for fantasy projection.

"Within this forest," Marius states, "the division between reality and imagination is very thin."