Juan Pardo is a Spanish explorer and conquistador who is active in the later half of the sixteenth century.
He leads a Spanish expedition through what is now North and South Carolina and into eastern Tennessee.
He establishes Fort San Felipe, South Carolina (1566), and the village of Santa Elena on present-day Parris Island, the first Spanish settlements in South Carolina.
While leading an expedition deeper in-country, Pardo founds Fort San Juan, the first Spanish settlement (1567–1568) in the interior of North Carolina.