Best known for its Romanesque monastery, the town is the last place you would expect a jihadist cell to operate.
Police now believe the young men were brought together and radicalised by a local imam with suspected terrorist links.
The suspects were brothers and friends of mostly Moroccan origin. Some were not out of their teens.
Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero said the cell was believed to be 12 strong, planning the attacks for more than six months.
Who are the Ripoll cell?
Five suspects were killed on Thursday night after killing a woman in a second vehicle attack in Cambrils: Moussa Oukabir, 17, Said Aallaa, 18, Houssaine Abouyaaqoub, 19, Omar Hychami, 21 and Mohamed Hychami, 24.
Four others have been arrested in connection with the attacks: Driss Oukabir, 28, Mohamed Houli Chemlal and Sahal al-Karib, 34, and Mohammed Aalla, 27.
It was confirmed on Monday that the remains of Abdelbaki Es Satty - a local Ripoll imam - were identified at the Alcanar explosion site. The other is presumed to be Youssef Aallaa, the brother of Sailid Aalla, who was killed in Cambrils.
Younes Abouyaaqoub was the only suspect who remained on the run after escaping but was shot dead by police on Monday.
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The 22-year-old suspected van driver behind the assault on people in Las Ramblas was seen on CCTV around the area for up to 90 minutes after the attack. He then hijacked a car and killed the driver - who police have confirmed as the 15th victim.
He was eventually killed after a five-day manhunt wearing a fake explosive belt in Subirats, 40km from Barcelona.
Who was the ringleader?
Like most of the suspects in the Barcelona attack, suspected mastermind Abdelbaki Es Satty had Moroccan roots.
The imam moved to the town after being released from prison in 2014, where he had spent two years for drug-trafficking offences.
The mayor of the Vilvorde region in Belgium confirmed Satty had spent time in the Brussels suburb of Machelen in the months leading up a terror attack there that killed 32.
A Belgian official told the BBC that the imam had preached at a mosque in 2015 for about five months before local elders became concerned at the "radicalised and polarising" nature of his religious teaching.
He is then thought to have travelled to Ripoll, the picturesque town with a population of just over 10,000 people.
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