🔗 Share this article

"Locals dub this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," remarks a tour guide, his exhalation forming clouds of vapor in the cold evening air. "Countless visitors have gone missing here, many believe it's an entrance to another dimension." Marius is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through what is often described as the planet's most ghostly grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval native woodland on the outskirts of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Accounts of bizarre occurrences here date back centuries – the forest is called after a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu gained international attention in 1968, when a military technician known as Emil Barnea photographed what he claimed was a UFO hovering above a circular clearing in the centre of the forest.

Countless ventured inside and vanished without trace. But no need to fear," he adds, facing his guest with a smirk. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, shamans, extraterrestrial investigators and ghost hunters from worldwide, curious to experience the unusual forces believed to resonate through the forest.

Current Risks

Although it is a top global destinations for paranormal enthusiasts, the forest is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a contemporary technology center of a population exceeding 400,000, called the tech capital of eastern Europe – are encroaching, and developers are campaigning for permission to remove the forest to build apartment blocks.

Barring a few hectares home to locally rare specific tree species, the grove is not officially protected, but Marius is confident that the company he was instrumental in creating – a dedicated preservation group – will assist in altering this, persuading the government officials to recognise the forest's value as a visitor destination.

Chilling Events

While branches and fall foliage split and rustle beneath their footwear, the guide tells numerous local legends and reported supernatural events here.

• A popular tale tells of a young child vanishing during a family picnic, only to rematerialise five years later with complete amnesia of her experience, showing no signs of aging a day, her clothes shy of the smallest trace of soil.
• Frequent accounts detail mobile phones and imaging devices unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Reactions range from complete terror to states of ecstasy.
• Various visitors claim seeing unusual marks on their skin, hearing unseen murmurs through the forest, or experience palms pushing them, despite being certain nobody is nearby.

Study Attempts

While many of the stories may be unverifiable, numerous elements clearly observable that is certainly unusual. All around are plants whose stems are bent and twisted into unusual forms.

Various suggestions have been given to clarify the abnormal growth: that hurricane winds could have shaped the young trees, or naturally high electromagnetic fields in the soil cause their strange formation.

But research studies have turned up no satisfactory evidence.

The Famous Clearing

The guide's tours enable participants to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the clearing in the trees where Barnea took his renowned UFO pictures, he passes the visitor an electromagnetic field detector which registers electromagnetic fields.

"We're venturing into the most active part of the forest," he states. "See what you can find."

The trees suddenly stop dead as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's naturally occurring, and appears that this strange clearing is wild, not the creation of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a location which stirs the imagination, where the division is unclear between fact and folklore. In countryside villages superstition remains in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering bloodsuckers, who emerge from tombs to frighten nearby villages.

The famous author's famous character Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and Bran Castle – a medieval building perched on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But including myth-shrouded Transylvania – truly, "the land past the woods" – feels tangible and comprehensible in contrast to the haunted grove, which give the impression of being, for factors related to radiation, atmospheric or purely mythical, a center for human imaginative power.

"In Hoia-Baciu," the guide comments, "the boundary between reality and imagination is remarkably blurred."