Every day a lot of people disappear due to inexplicable events. These events are mostly explained with UFOs’ appearing or portals to other worlds being opened. There are many places with similar anomalies all around the world. Among them the Hoia-Baciu forest stands out. It is situated outside a small Romanian town, Cluj-Napoca. For centuries the locals have tried to give a wide berth to this forest.
How All the Thing Started
100 years ago the forest was not that remarkable at all. What frightened people more and drew their most attention was Bran Castle situated near the forest and built by Count Dracula in the 14th century. Though the forest surrounds the castle, it did not cause any concerns. Despite the fear of Dracula’s castle, the locals were not afraid of the woods. It did them a good turn – the forest was the shortest way to the village, people hunted there, gathered berries and mushrooms. Youngsters ran games in the forest. Everything changed, however, one hundred odd years ago. All forest paths became overgrown, slim trees curved, the soil was covered with moss, and almost all animal were gone. No birds were seen in the thickets. Local people believe, Devil came to the forest. One traveler saw Dracula himself hunting at this place.
The First Disappearance
The forest had sown fear among the locals for a long time. But there were no frightening events related to it. Everything changed after World War I. Not far from the forest, in one of the villages, lived a shepherd. His name was Leader, Romanian “Baciu”. He was a very respected person. At that time cattle breeding was the most common business. Baciu succeeded in it. He sold hundreds of his sheep and thus earned the respect.
One hot July day he set up for a fair in Cluj-Napoca with two hundred heads of cattle. In order to get to the fair faster, the shepherd decided to shorten his way and go through the forest. He left early in the morning, and since then he was never seen again. His disappearing was not notices at once. But when merchants, who were waiting for the sheep, could not wait for Baciu any longer, they went to his village themselves. Several thousands of villagers set off for searching him. Thirty five hectares of the forest, meter by meter, were combed. However, neither Baciu nor his sheep were found. Not a trace. Robbers had left this land a long time ago. But even if they still had been there, without being noticed could they not have killed a shepherd and they could not have stolen so big flock of sheep. That is why the local people put the blame of the shepherd’s disappearance on the forest.
Since that time the forest, which people called Hoia, was renamed as Hoia-Baciu.
Mysterious Disappearances Continue
Baciu’s disappearance was followed by a number of other incidents. The locals said, the forest did not stop hunting. Within a few years some more people disappeared. While there are cases that can be taken as accidents, the other events are beyond logical explanation.
One of the most well-known incidents happened after World War II. A young teacher worked at the village school. She was not local there, and she did not believe either in God or in mysticism. In order to prove that everything about the forest is just superstitions of the local people, one day she went to the forest for mushrooms. After a few days people found her sitting in the woods and not being able to speak a word. She died soon, and nobody could find out what had happened to her in the forest.
The forest did not spare anybody. A little girl went there came back by a miracle. But after visiting the forest she could not remember anything: she did not know who she was, where she was from, where she came, even what had happened in the forest. The other time a five-year-old girl disappeared chasing a butterfly. Despite the fear, the locals set up for searching her. They had been looking for her for several days, but the girl was not found. She reappeared after five years, wearing the same clothes and holding the butterfly in her hands. The girl remembered her name and knew where she was from. But according to her own words, there were no five years for her, but only a few seconds while she was chasing the butterfly.
Despite the events being happened, there were some local sceptics who still claimed that Hoia-Baciu was a usual forest. There were even those who were not afraid of going there for mushrooms and berries. Yet among all those people a peculiarity was noticed: almost each sceptic fell ill right after visiting the forest. They suffered headaches and dizziness, skin rashes and vomited without any apparent cause. Doctors failed defining what the people who looked absolutely healthy were suffering. However, they recovered themselves after some time. That was certainly connected with Hoia-Baciu, and the forest got ill fame.
World Fame
In 1960s Alexandru Sift, a Romanian biologist, became the first scientist who began examining the Hoia-Baciu phenomenon. Without caring a straw about the potential danger, he was wandering all around the forest for a long time and took photosets in the thickets. Several times he even stayed for a night in the depth of Hoia-Baciu. The forest did not do him any harm.
The explorer noticed that somewhere in the heart of the forest there was an ideally round glade. On it there was absolutely nothing live. Nevertheless, the samples of the soil from that glade being compared with the soils of other places in the woods did not show any aberrations.
The biologist noted that a round UFO could be seen all around the forest. However, its activity was the highest where a bare glade was situated. After Alexandru had developed the films of his night photosets, he noticed the other unexplainable strangeness. The films had some glowing round objects in them. Those objects could not be seen with a naked eye though. Similar spheres appear in the photos even today.
The locals, however, could give an explanation to the phenomenon. They believe, haunting souls of those who died in Hoia-Baciu fly around the forest. It is all because the land of Transylvania has drunk enough blood during the wars which took place on it.
In 1968 Emile Barney, a Romanian military engineer, got with it. Soon after he started his observations he contrived to take a photo of a UFO above the forest. Scientists established that it was a real UFO of obscure nature.
A Portal into Other Worlds
Nowadays Hoia-Baciu is being vigorously explored by ufologists from all over the world, though the activity of the forest has decreased. Some people still see those glowing spheres and sometimes hear disembodied voices or notice strange shadows and lights. In winter unusual footprints which do not belong to any creature on the Earth can be found.
People living in the neighboring villages have found their own explanation to all peculiarities of the forest. Now they consider the glade in the heart of Hoia-Baciu to be a real portal to other worlds. Those who disappeared in the forest just vanished into a parallel universe. In turn, all UFOs, glowing spheres and shadows are inhabitants of that very universe, who got to the Earth somehow.
Besides, the locals have remembered about Count Dracula and his castle. Probably, it was the castle that caused all those events. And the castle itself may be a portal to strange worlds.
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