In my short summary I intend to provide a survey of the topic of healthy towns with healthy residents. The term healthy town already appeared in the 1930s, naturally with different content and values in comparison to today’s notions. The transformation of settlements, their becoming interactive spaces, necessarily triggered socio-spatial processes resulting in healthier urban environments, rejuvenated both spatially and as communities. In the first part of the study those international models (WHO) are elaborated on which serve as the basis of healthy towns, focusing on goals and means. In the second part the examples of Hungarian healthy towns, the concepts and projects of retirement and liveable communities are listed. The current Hungarian initiatives in this area are rather modest; nevertheless, the already realized projects may generate further ones in the future.