Exploring this Globe's Spookiest Grove: Contorted Trees, Flying Saucers and Eerie Tales in Transylvania.

"Locals dub this place a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states a tour guide, the air from his lungs forming puffs of condensation in the crisp evening air. "Countless people have gone missing here, many believe there's a gateway to a different realm." This expert is escorting a traveler on a evening stroll through frequently labeled as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval native woodland on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

Hundreds of Years of Enigma

Stories of strange happenings here date back hundreds of years – the forest is titled for a local shepherd who is believed to have disappeared in the long ago, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when a military technician called Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a flying saucer floating above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Many came in here and failed to return. But rest assured," he adds, facing his guest with a smirk. "Our excursions have a perfect safety record."

In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has drawn meditation experts, spiritual healers, ufologists and ghost hunters from worldwide, curious to experience the unusual forces reported to reverberate through the forest.

Current Risks

It may be a top global pilgrimage sites for paranormal enthusiasts, the grove is facing danger. The western districts of Cluj-Napoca – a modern tech hub of a population exceeding 400,000, called the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are encroaching, and real estate firms are advocating for approval to remove the forest to erect housing complexes.

Barring a limited section housing area-specific oak varieties, this woodland is not officially protected, but the guide is confident that the initiative he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will assist in altering this, encouraging the local administrators to appreciate the forest's value as a tourist attraction.

Spooky Experiences

While branches and autumn leaves snap and crunch beneath their footwear, Marius describes some of the local legends and claimed supernatural events here.

• One famous story describes a little girl vanishing during a group gathering, then to reappear half a decade later with no recollection of the events, without aging a moment, her clothes without the slightest speck of dirt.
• Regular stories detail cellphones and camera equipment unexpectedly failing on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses include full-blown dread to feelings of joy.
• Some people report seeing bizarre skin irritations on their arms, hearing unseen murmurs through the forest, or experience fingers clutching them, despite being convinced they're by themselves.

Study Attempts

Despite several of the accounts may be hard to prove, there is much clearly observable that is undeniably strange. Throughout the area are vegetation whose stems are bent and twisted into fantastical shapes.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the misshapen plants: strong gales could have bent the saplings, or naturally high radiation levels in the soil explain their strange formation.

But research studies have found inconclusive results.

The Legendary Opening

The expert's excursions permit visitors to engage in a little scientific inquiry of their own. As we approach the opening in the woods where Barnea captured his famous UFO pictures, he hands the visitor an EMF meter which measures energy patterns.

"We're stepping into the most active area of the forest," he says. "Try to detect something."

The trees abruptly end as they step into a flawless round. The only greenery is the trimmed turf beneath their shoes; it's clear that it's not maintained, and looks that this unusual opening is natural, not the creation of landscaping.

The Blurred Line

The broader region is a area which stirs the imagination, where the border is indistinct between fact and folklore. In traditional settlements faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, shapeshifting creatures, who rise from their graves to haunt local communities.

The novelist's well-known character Dracula is permanently linked with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a medieval building situated on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "the vampire's home".

But despite legend-filled Transylvania – truly, "the place beyond the forest" – seems tangible and comprehensible versus these eerie woods, which give the impression of being, for causes related to radiation, environmental or simply folkloric, a hub for human imaginative power.

"Within this forest," the guide states, "the division between truth and fantasy is very thin."