🔗 Share this article

"They call this spot a mysterious vortex of Transylvania," states an experienced guide, the air from his lungs producing puffs of condensation in the chilly evening air. "Countless people have vanished here, some say there's a gateway to another dimension." This expert is guiding a visitor on a nocturnal tour through frequently labeled as the globe's spookiest woodland: Hoia-Baciu, a section spanning 640 acres of primeval native woodland on the fringes of the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca.

A Long History of the Unexplained

Reports of unusual events here extend back centuries – the forest is named after a area shepherd who is said to have vanished in the far-off times, along with his entire flock. But Hoia-Baciu achieved global recognition in 1968, when a defense worker called Emil Barnea captured on film what he described as a flying saucer suspended above a circular clearing in the middle of the forest.

Numerous entered this place and failed to return. But don't worry," he adds, turning to the visitor with a smile. "Our excursions have a flawless completion rate."

In the years that followed, Hoia-Baciu has attracted yogis, spiritual healers, extraterrestrial investigators and supernatural researchers from worldwide, curious to experience the strange energies said to echo through the forest.

Current Risks

Despite being a top global destinations for lovers of the paranormal, this woodland is under threat. The outlying areas of Cluj-Napoca – an innovative digital cluster of a population exceeding 400,000, described as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe – are expanding, and developers are advocating for permission to cut down the woods to erect housing complexes.

Except for a limited section housing regionally uncommon Mediterranean oak trees, this woodland is lacking legal protection, but the guide is confident that the organization he was instrumental in creating – a local conservation effort – will help to change that, motivating the government officials to acknowledge the forest's importance as a travel hotspot.

Eerie Encounters

As twigs and seasonal debris break and crackle beneath their shoes, the guide recounts various folk tales and reported paranormal happenings here.

• One famous story tells of a five-year-old girl vanishing during a family outing, later to rematerialise after five years with no recollection of what had happened, showing no signs of aging a day, her garments lacking the smallest trace of dirt.
• Regular stories describe cellphones and imaging devices inexplicably shutting down on venturing inside.
• Emotional responses include complete terror to feelings of joy.
• Various visitors state noticing strange rashes on their bodies, perceiving unseen murmurs through the trees, or experience fingers clutching them, even when certain nobody is nearby.

Scientific Investigations

Although numerous of the stories may be unverifiable, numerous elements clearly observable that is definitely bizarre. All around are plants whose bases are curved and contorted into bizarre configurations.

Multiple explanations have been given to explain the abnormal growth: powerful storms could have bent the saplings, or inherently elevated radioactivity in the earth explain their unusual development.

But scientific investigations have turned up insufficient proof.

The Famous Clearing

The expert's walks allow guests to take part in a modest investigation of their own. Upon reaching the opening in the woods where Barnea took his famous UFO pictures, he gives the traveler an electromagnetic field detector which measures energy patterns.

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

The vegetation suddenly stop dead as we emerge into a flawless round. The single plant life is the short grass beneath our feet; it's obvious that it hasn't been mown, and seems that this bizarre meadow is wild, not the work of people.

Between Reality and Imagination

Transylvania generally is a place which fuels fantasy, where the border is blurred between truth and myth. In rural Romanian communities faith continues in strigoi ("screamers") – otherworldly, appearance-altering vampires, who emerge from tombs to haunt nearby villages.

Bram Stoker's well-known vampire Count Dracula is forever associated with Transylvania, and the legendary fortress – a Saxon monolith situated on a stone formation in the Carpathian Mountains – is heavily promoted as "the vampire's home".

But despite folklore-rich Transylvania – truly, "the territory after the grove" – seems real and understandable versus these eerie woods, which appear to be, for factors radioactive, climatic or simply folkloric, a center for creative energy.

"Inside these woods," Marius states, "the boundary between truth and fantasy is very thin."