"Locals dub this spot an enigmatic zone of Transylvania," explains a tour guide, his breath producing puffs of vapor in the crisp dusk atmosphere. "Numerous individuals have gone missing here, some say it's a portal to a different realm." The guide is escorting a traveler on a evening stroll through what is often described as the world's most haunted grove: Hoia-Baciu, an area covering one square mile of primeval native woodland on the outskirts of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca.
Accounts of strange happenings here date back hundreds of years – this woodland is titled for a regional herder who is reportedly went missing in the long ago, along with 200 of his sheep. But Hoia-Baciu achieved international attention in 1968, when an army specialist known as Emil Barnea photographed what he reported as a UFO suspended above a oval meadow in the heart of the forest.
Countless ventured inside and failed to return. But don't worry," he adds, addressing the visitor with a smile. "Our tours have a perfect safety record."
In the decades since, Hoia-Baciu has brought in yoga practitioners, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from across the world, interested in encountering the strange energies believed to resonate through the forest.
It may be a top global pilgrimage sites for supernatural fans, the grove is facing danger. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of over 400,000 residents, known as the innovation center of the region – are advancing, and developers are advocating for approval to clear the trees to construct residential buildings.
Except for a small area home to locally rare specific tree species, the forest is lacking legal protection, but Marius believes that the organization he helped establish – a local conservation effort – will contribute to improving the situation, motivating the government officials to acknowledge the forest's significance as a tourist attraction.
When small sticks and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, Marius recounts some of the folk tales and reported paranormal happenings here.
Although numerous of the tales may be unverifiable, there are many things before my eyes that is certainly unusual. Throughout the area are trees whose bases are warped and gnarled into fantastical shapes.
Multiple explanations have been suggested to account for the deformed trees: that hurricane winds could have bent the saplings, or typically increased radiation levels in the soil account for their unusual development.
But formal examinations have discovered insufficient proof.
The guide's excursions enable guests to take part in a small-scale research of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the woods where Barnea took his famous UFO images, he hands the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures energy patterns.
"We're stepping into the most active part of the forest," he says. "See what you can find."
The trees suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a perfect circle. The single plant life is the trimmed turf beneath our feet; it's apparent that it's not maintained, and seems that this unusual opening is organic, not the result of people.
Transylvania generally is a place which stirs the imagination, where the line is unclear between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – supernatural, form-changing bloodsuckers, who return from burial sites to frighten local communities.
The famous author's well-known fictional vampire is forever associated with Transylvania, and the historic stronghold – an ancient structure situated on a cliff edge in the Carpathian Mountains – is keenly marketed as "Dracula's Castle".
But despite legend-filled Transylvania – actually, "the territory after the grove" – appears real and understandable compared to these eerie woods, which appear to be, for factors related to radiation, environmental or purely mythical, a center for creative energy.
"In Hoia-Baciu," Marius states, "the line between reality and imagination is very thin."
Film critic and industry analyst with a passion for uncovering cinematic trends and storytelling techniques.
