Hoya Baciu Forest is the Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania. Hoya bachu forest Romanian forest

Some forests on Earth are truly creepy places. Strangely curved trees, flickering shadows, unknown sounds emanating from the void, the chilling howls of animals with a piercing echo instill in a person the fear of the unknown and mystical. For the most part, as a rule, there is no real danger in all this, and this eerie sensation is present only in our minds, but what is happening in one ominous forest of Transylvania actually exists, and can drive even the most convinced skeptic crazy . The legendary habitat of vampires, ghouls and werewolves is Transylvania (a region of Romania), also known for its cursed forest; dark, ominous, full of various inexplicable phenomena and strange incidents.

The Hoia-Baciu forest is located west of the city of Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania, in a not at all remote and frequently visited area. This area is quite popular among researchers due to its huge number of strange phenomena. Although the forest covers only 3 square kilometers, it has a long history of unexplained phenomena, and boasts a full range of oddities, including ghosts, UFOs, magnetic anomalies, apparitions, spectral faces, disembodied voices, mysterious disappearances, unexplained physical impacts on visitors. It is difficult to imagine such a place on Earth, where such a number of oddities would be concentrated in such a small area. For all its unexplained phenomena, Hoya-Bachi has earned the nickname “The Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania.”

Most local residents avoid going to this forest. As it turns out, the name of the forest itself comes from an unexplained phenomenon. Legend has it that Baciu (Romanian for “sheep herder”) once led a flock of sheep through the forest, but never emerged. Despite all efforts to find the shepherd, no traces of him were found, just like the traces of 200 sheep. It was as if they had all simply disappeared from the face of the Earth. The area quickly gained fame in local folklore as a place from which no one returns. Residents of this area also believe that the ghosts of brutally murdered peasants roam the forest, and those who enter here with their own cruel thoughts will be punished fairly by the forest. This ominous reputation of a cursed place has long kept people in fear; for a long time it was considered dangerous to even talk about Khoya Bachi.

It's not hard to understand why such legends and folklore have taken over this place. The atmosphere of Khoya-Bachi is very gloomy and menacing, with its ancient, gnarled trees, in the bark of which you can see screaming faces, strange signs, and burns on the trunks. Electronic equipment in the forest refuses to work, and the compass needle turns in all directions. Eyewitnesses often talk about an intangible thick air that permeates the space around with fear. The most common manifestations in the forest that visitors encounter are an inexplicable, strong and severe feeling of anxiety, excessive thirst, the feeling of someone's gaze on you, fear, sudden, powerful panic attacks for no apparent reason, and a strong desire to run away, even when absence of any danger.

Some visitors have reported severe migraines, and feelings of disorientation, nausea, dizziness, a sense of lost time, and unexplained sharp pains in various parts of the body. Among the mysterious incidents in the forest, eyewitnesses testified to loss of consciousness; later they found themselves in a completely different place and could not understand how much time had passed. Others described powerful memories of their past that literally hit them upon entering the forest, but immediately disappeared as soon as the person left this cursed place. In other cases, people have reportedly gone on astral travel, they have described how their consciousness floated, they saw themselves from above, saw the forest, and then returned back to the body. Many people, just a few minutes after entering the forest, have experienced strange physical sensations such as tingling in the body, tickling, or an electric current. Sometimes guests of Khoya-Bachi complained of unexplained physical injuries, such as nosebleeds, bruises, scratches, scars and even burns appearing on the body by themselves.

However, a pervasive cloud of anxiety, feelings of being watched, mysterious physical sensations and injuries inflicted by unseen forces do not seem to be the worst thing that can happen in Hoya Bachi. Travelers report that they often hear disembodied voices or laughter. Perhaps the most eerie phenomenon in the forest is the sudden flashing of people’s faces in front of frightened visitors. These faces can also be seen in photographs taken in this forest. Disfigured, distorted faces also materialize from the trees themselves; here you can find thickets of branches that seem to grow into faces. Anecdotal reports speak of thick black fog seeping through trees and bushes. Among other things, unknown otherworldly voices can be heard from radios and telephones in these places.

Forests can be truly creepy places, but there seems to be something going on in Hoya Baci that goes beyond the “merely” creepy.

Romania is a country that has long been famous for its mysterious and terrifying legends passed from mouth to mouth. The most popular attraction is considered to be the mysterious Bran Castle, which was built in the 14th century and belonged to the well-known mystical character in all respects - Vlad the Impaler, known as Count Dracula.

However, recently, it is not the mysterious castle that has become much more popular among tourists, but the nearby forest of Hoya Baciu, in which completely inexplicable events began to occur relatively recently.

Just about 100 years ago, this forest was a cozy green corner where locals happily spent their weekends picking berries and mushrooms. A busy road ran through the forest, used daily by dozens of people. Today, this road is barely noticeable due to the thickets that completely covered the once well-trodden road. Local residents prefer not to enter the forest again, which in a matter of days turned into an abode of the paranormal and struck terror into the hearts of people.

The beginning of unusual events

The mysterious history of Hoya Baciu began with the fact that at the beginning of the 20th century, the forest, for no apparent reason, began to change its appearance. The once straight trees began to bend in different directions at very strange and unusual angles. The animals and birds began to gradually disappear, and then disappeared completely. Locals began to talk about how Satan himself became interested in the forest.

The Vanished Shepherd

Stories of mysterious disappearances began shortly after the First World War. The main occupation of local residents was cattle breeding and raising sheep for sale. One day, a shepherd named Bachu with a flock of 200 sheep went to the market through the forest. He entered Hoya early in the morning and disappeared forever. Soon after the mysterious disappearance, they began to search for Bachu and combed the entire forest. Unfortunately, traces of the shepherd and 200 sheep were never found.

Another dimension

The story of a shepherd named Bachu was not the last case of people disappearing. But any disappearance can still be explained by logical things: the person could have been killed by an animal or a robber. But Hoya Baciu is famous for even more mysterious cases than disappearances in its depths.
One day, a young teacher at a local school decided to go into the forest to pick mushrooms. She did not believe in the mysterious and sinister stories that were actively discussed by local residents. The teacher was absent for a long time and people went looking for her. They found her sitting alone in the thicket of the forest. The girl could not remember her name or how she ended up in the forest.
Another time, a little girl ran into the forest after a butterfly and disappeared. The girl's parents launched a large-scale search, but the child was never found. Five years later, this same girl came out of the forest at the same age and appearance as five years ago. She was completely sure that only five minutes had passed and did not understand what had happened.

Cases involving UFOs have been repeatedly recorded in Hoia Baciu, and mysterious flickering orbs and mysterious silhouettes are practically the norm for this place. Recognized world ufologists consider the mysterious forest one of the most interesting anomalous zones in the whole world. They believe that Hoya-Baciu may well be a temporary portal, where the heroes of numerous incidents that occur in this ominous forest end up.

Romania is simply a country that is a storehouse of mysticism and various devilish things. In addition to the gloomy castle of Vlad the Impaler, known to everyone as Count Dracula, there are still places where it is not advisable for the especially impressionable to go. But if you are tired of the generally accepted routes, you adore nature and are looking for adventure on your own, then this selection is for you.

Hoya Baciu Forest

Dubbed the "Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania", the forest near the city of Cluj-Napoca is one of the most active regions in the world in terms of paranormal activity. Once upon a time a shepherd disappeared here along with his flock, and no one was able to find him or even part of the sheep. Since then, the forest has had a bad reputation. Local residents say that those who enter Hoya Bacha suddenly experience a strange feeling of nausea and at the same time constantly feel that someone is following them. And these are not only impressions. Unexplained phenomena were captured by cameras: UFOs floating in the air, shadows, strange silhouettes.

Witch Lake

Continuing the mystical excursion, you can look into another forest, Bold Cretjeasca, 30 kilometers from Bucharest. There is a mysterious lake there. Its depth is 1.5 meters and remains unchanged in hot weather and during the rainy season. There are no frogs or birds here. Animals always avoid this place and even in drought do not drink the enchanted water. Local residents say that for a long time, witches and sorcerers have been coming to the lake to conduct secret rituals. It is believed that the lake is a source of some kind of mental energy for those who can feel it. Looks like a good place for meditation.

Radovan Forest

And in this forest, located in Dolzh County, ghosts live. More precisely, the ghost of a young woman dressed in a wedding dress. They say: this is the ghost of a girl who came from Moldova to earn money for her family, but hanged herself in the Radovan forest, thinking she was pregnant. Others believe that the ghost of a girl appears in the forest, whose fiancé died right before the wedding. The news of his death forced her to jump into a well in her wedding dress. But even after death, she did not stop looking for her beloved. That's why the bride only appears in front of unmarried guys' cars. Legends are legends, but on the road running along the forest, you really have to be very careful.

Longgang Hill

On Longgan Hill between the villages of Sarka and Longgan of Yassy County, you won’t be able to enjoy the local beauty in silence either - and mysterious phantoms wander here. They say that soldiers who died during the First World War were buried in a mass grave at this place. Buried without religious rites, their souls found no peace. So the restless walk the earth.

Trovante Museum-Reserve

In the south of Romania, among the sand quarries of the Valcea region, there are no ghosts, but “living” stones called “trovants” grow there. Their size ranges from a few grams to several tons, and the largest specimens reach a height of 10 meters. The most interesting thing is that such huge boulders many years ago were just small pebbles. According to geologists, the reason for the growth of stones lies in the increased mineralization of sandstone rocks. Rainwater activates a chemical reaction inside the trovant, and the pressure inside the stone causes it to grow. The whole process resembles budding, and scientists are seriously thinking about the question: are stones still an inorganic form of life unknown to mankind?

The sights of Europe are the center of attraction for tourists and travelers from all over the world. In the heart of Eastern Europe, in Romania, there is one unusual place - the mysterious forest of Hoia Baciu, notorious for numerous visits by UFOs, screams coming from the thicket and strange burns that appear on people who have visited this ominous place.

Mysterious forest of Hoia Baciu in Romania

In Romania, a country known for its eerie stories and dark stone castles, lies a forest that holds terrible secrets. Khoya Bachu Forest can be found in the heart of Transylvania, near the ancient city of Cluj-Napoca. Often referred to as Romania's "Bermuda Triangle", the dense forested area is famous for its paranormal activity, including UFOs, strange noises and spectral entities caught on camera.

Local residents are convinced that the devil himself roams the forest. Those who visit Hoya Bacha experience feelings of anxiety, as well as attacks of nausea or migraines. Often people develop unexplained rashes, scratches and burns on their skin. However, the mysterious nature of the forest does not end only with its harmful effects on humans. Some deformed trees grow in an interesting way, and in the place of some of them you can see, for unknown reasons, charred trunks. Despite the creepy stories and stories, this kind of thing continues to attract the attention of tourists, especially fans of everything supernatural and mysterious.


An ideal place for a UFO to land

The forest was named after a shepherd who disappeared in the area with a flock of two hundred sheep. Most people who live nearby are afraid to go there because of the many scary stories and legends that have been passed down by word of mouth over the years. They believe that those who go far into the ominous forest will never return home. Fairy tales are fairy tales, but how to explain the fact that some electronic devices break down in the forest? Paranormal researchers attribute such problems to supernatural activity in this place.

Deep in the forest there is an almost perfect circular clearing, in which there are no plants or trees, it is likely that this place serves as a landing strip for alien spaceships. Numerous photographs taken in these areas show strange, disc-shaped lights hovering above the treetops. Rumors about time travel and doors to other dimensions are certainly exaggerated, however, it is clear that there is something in this forest that makes you flinch at the slightest creak, especially in the evening.


Holidays in Europe can become unforgettable for those who have planned their trip to Romania, the land of vampires and ghosts, where the spirit of mysticism hovers everywhere. In the vicinity of the city of Cluj-Napoca there is the most mystical and strange forest, legends and myths about which have long been passed down from generation to generation. Proof that this is not another terrible tale about Dracula is that signs of magnetic anomalies, electromagnetic and unusual infrasonic vibrations were actually recorded in the forest.


The Hoia Baciu forest, located near the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, rightfully bears the title of one of the most mysterious places in Europe. It is called the "Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania."

This analogy suggests itself: people disappear here without a trace, encounters with UFOs are common... Residents of the surrounding villages prefer not to go to Hoya Bacha, so as not to incur the wrath of powerful forces that, in their opinion, live in the forest.

The forest was changing before our eyes...

The main tourist attraction in Transylvania is Bran Castle, built in the 14th century. It was once owned by the legendary Vlad the Impaler, better known to us as Count Dracula.

However, in recent years, more and more tourists have sought to visit not only and not so much Dracula’s castle, but the surrounding forest of Hoia Baciu, in which paranormal phenomena have become almost commonplace.

But a little more than 100 years ago it was a forest like a forest. Local residents hunted there, picked mushrooms and berries. A well-worn path ran through the forest, along which travelers were not afraid to travel even at night. Now this road is almost overgrown, and only extreme sports enthusiasts will risk going to Hoya Bacha at night. Or obsessive paranormal investigators. Which, however, is enough.

At the beginning of the last century, the forest (then it was simply called Hoya) began to change literally before our eyes. Straight tree trunks gradually bent at monstrous angles. The soil was overgrown with thick moss. The animals gradually disappeared from the forest, followed by almost all the birds. Local residents whispered that they saw Vlad the Impaler in Khoya, who at one time loved to hunt in these places. It was rumored that the devil himself had chosen the forest thicket.

The Missing Shepherd

The Hoya forest began to justify its sinister reputation immediately after the end of the First World War. In one of the local villages there lived a shepherd nicknamed Baciu (translated from Romanian as “leader”, “chief”). The local residents were engaged in cattle breeding, and therefore Bacha, who raised and sold hundreds of sheep, was respected. One day in June, a shepherd drove a flock of 200 head to a fair in the town of Cluj-Napoca. His path ran through the forest. Bachu went there early in the morning and... disappeared without a trace.

When he did not appear at the fair at the appointed time, the merchants, who were waiting for the flock for which they had already paid a deposit, became alarmed. Residents of the city and surrounding villages (several thousand people took part in the search) literally combed the forest, whose area is 35 hectares, literally one meter at a time. But no traces of either the shepherd or the sheep could be found.

There have been no robbers in these places for a long time, but even if they appeared from somewhere and killed Bacha, hiding his body, taking such a large flock away without being noticed in the surrounding villages is an unrealistic task. The respected man and the sheep disappeared without a trace. And from then on the forest began to be called Hoya-Baciu.

Time loop

The forest, like a predator that had tasted the taste of human blood, demanded more and more victims. Over the course of several years, several more people disappeared in Hoia Baciu. Their bodies were also not found. But these tragedies can be attributed to an accident, an attack by wild animals, that is, at least somehow explained. Other stories smack of outright devilry.

Here, for example, are two cases that occurred after the Second World War. A young teacher who did not believe in God or the devil went to Hoya Bacha to pick mushrooms. Soon local residents found her sitting on the edge of the forest.

In 1989, the Screaming Forest, located in Kent near the village of Pluckley, entered the Guinness Book of Records. It has seen the highest number of ghosts in the UK, with at least 12 “apparitions” per year.

The unfortunate woman completely lost her memory - she didn’t even remember her name. And, of course, she could not answer the question of what happened to her in the forest. Another time, a five-year-old girl, chasing a beautiful butterfly, ran into the forest and disappeared. A search was organized, but the baby was never found. Only five years later, the missing girl - wearing the same clothes and absolutely unchanged in appearance - came out of the forest, holding a caught butterfly by the wings.

The little girl was never able to tell where she had been: for her, only a few minutes had passed from the moment she entered the thicket.

Educated people, like the teacher discussed above, despise superstition. Therefore, although the majority of local residents avoided going to Hoya Bacha, some still went there for berries and mushrooms. Not everyone, but some soon fell ill - people complained of skin rashes, migraines, dizziness, and causeless vomiting. Doctors were unable to establish the cause of ailments in absolutely healthy people. After some time, the patients recovered, but Hoya-Bacha finally gained a bad reputation.

World fame

In the 1960s, Romanian biologist Alexander Sift became interested in the Hoya-Baciu phenomenon. He became the first scientist to seriously take up the study of the paranormal zone. For a number of years, Alexander, despite the danger, crossed the forest far and wide, spent the night in the thicket, and conducted photo sessions there.

Surprisingly, Hoya-Baciu did not cause him any harm. Alexander Sift noted that in the depths of the forest there is a strange round clearing with no vegetation. When comparing soil samples from this clearing and from a regular forest one, no difference in composition was found. This means that there are no biological reasons for the disappearance of vegetation within the round clearing.

Alexander Sift noted: UFOs (most often round in shape) can be found anywhere in the forest. But in the area of ​​the “bald” meadow their activity is greatest. When developing films after night photo sessions, the researcher noticed another strange feature. Many photographs show round luminous objects that are not perceived by the naked eye.

By the way, such balls still often appear in photographs taken with digital cameras. Scientists cannot give a reasonable explanation for this, but local residents have one. In their opinion, the balls are the souls of dead people. The fact is that the lands of Transylvania are abundantly watered with blood - this region constantly passed from hand to hand in the Middle Ages. All this, of course, was accompanied by violence. The unfortunate peasants were robbed and mercilessly killed by local princes, Hungarians, Romanians, and Turks.

...In 1968, Sift’s work was continued by the Romanian military engineer Emil Barni. Soon after the observations began, he managed to photograph a UFO above the treetops. Experts have established that we are indeed talking about some kind of flying object, the nature of which they cannot explain. It is believed that this is the clearest and most reliable photograph of a UFO taken in Romania.

A portal to another world?

Nowadays, numerous ufologists from different countries of the world come to Hoya Baciu - Germany, France, Great Britain, Hungary. However, paranormal activity in these places has decreased somewhat in recent years. Not all visitors manage to encounter mystical phenomena.

However, many of them observe luminous balls in the forest (most often near a “bald” clearing in the depths of the forest). Sometimes researchers hear strange sounds or see flickering shadows and lights. In winter, strange footprints often appear in the snow that do not belong to any creature known on Earth.

In photographs you can still often see strange silhouettes and glowing orbs that are invisible to the naked eye.

Prestigious publications dedicated to ufology, as well as the BBC channel, call Hoya Bacha one of the most interesting paranormal zones on the planet. Even Nicolas Cage came here, intrigued by programs about the mysterious forest. The famous Hollywood actor spent several days filming a documentary about Hoya Baciu, which he now shows to his friends at private parties. Cage is sure that the trees in the forest changed their shape under the influence of the powerful energy inherent in these places. After this statement by the actor, yoga lovers began to come to Hoya Baciu. They meditate in the forest and try to draw energy from a mystical source.

In recent years, residents of the surrounding villages have found their own explanation for all the devilry that is happening in Hoya Baciu. They are sure that the “bald” clearing in the thicket is a portal to another world. The disappeared people simply fell through there. And luminous balls, strange shadows and UFOs are inhabitants of a parallel universe that accidentally ended up in our world.

But there is another version that explains the mysterious phenomena in Hoya Baciu. Dracula's Castle, which was somehow forgotten among all the hype around the mystical forest, may well influence the surrounding area with its negative energy and even be a kind of portal connecting our world with parallel worlds.

Andrey Leshukonsky

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