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The first Orthodox church was probably built at the site where the castle-town was located which is on St Nicholaus’ Hill. Unfortunately, no assurance can be given as for this fact due to the lack of records and historical sources. It is known only that in 1431 on the hill of St Nicholaus, there was a church. Father Jakub Makara, a Jarosław catechist, historian and a regional historian, suggests that the church is an old wooden Orthodox church taken over by Catholics.

However, when it comes to the confirmed existence of the first Orthodox temple it is known that it was located on St John’s Hill, at the place where later a church and a Jesuit college was built.

It was a wooden Orthodox parish church which in 1580 the then owner of the town, Jan Kostka, ordered to move across the San, to Garbarze. At the same time, he forbade the Orthodox Church believers to erect any new church within the town walls. He also banned renovation of the church he had moved to Garbarze. The idea was that the faithful of the Orthodox Church converted to the Latin Church. In this situation, the followers of orthodoxy were forced to attend to the parish Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary in Ruskie Przedmieście. The Church moved from Jarosław survived in Garbarze to 1630. In 1634, a new temple, i.e. of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross with the chapel of St Onufry was built in the same place. Unfortunately, the fate of the church was clinched by the events of World War I. Just before the outbreak of the war the church was disassembled for maintenance and renewal. At the time of the war the Russian army burned down the wooden construction of the Orthodox church. The only thing that has remained from it is documentation (photos and inventory) made by Eng. Mieczysław Dobrzański.