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[Display omitted] • A regional chronology of landsliding on the banks of the Váh River has been compiled. • Data from 408 tree-ring series allowed to reveal 45 landslide events. • The spatio-temporal behaviour of landslides was reconstructed. • Spatial analysis revealed specific relationships between landslide and river. Landslides on the banks of meander bends of lower rivers pose a potential risk to the navigability of rivers, but also to their potentially dangerous damming. To properly understand the relationship of river action on the stability of adjacent landslides, it is necessary to analyse the historical evolution and spatial extent of landslide activity. In this study, the results of a regional reconstruction of landslide movements on the lower reaches of the Váh River (central Slovakia) are presented, which allows for a more comprehensive disclosure of the river-slide relationship compared to classical case studies. Using data from a 408 tree-ring series of 204 disturbed trees, 43 reactivations of five landslides were dated over the last ca. 45 years. Analysis of the relationship between the spatial extent of landslide activity and distance from the river revealed that in two cases there was a direct relationship where landslide activity gradually decreased with increasing distance from the river (these were the landslides closest to the river). Given the absence of erosional forms on the riverbank, it is likely that the landslides are not being destabilized by lateral river erosion and the relief of their faces, but rather by the loading of their bodies due to rising groundwater during floods. On the other hand, one landslide (furthest from the river) showed increasing landslide activity towards the main scarp. This pattern is consistent with the retrogressive landslide development generally expected for other landslides in the wider region. For the remaining two landslides, no significant relationship between spatial landslide activity and distance from the river was found, which, however, cannot rule it out, but rather suggests that the influences on the initiation of landslide movements in this case are very complex and probably combine both the influence of groundwater level fluctuations and the occurrence of critical rainfall events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]