A series of five compounds containing the bicyclo[3.3.0]octa-2,6-diene skeleton are described, namely tetramethyl cis,cis-3,7-dihydroxybicyclo[3.3.0]octa-2,6-diene-2,4-exo,6,8-exo-tetracarboxylate, C(16)H(18)O(10), (I), tetramethyl cis,cis-3,7-dihydroxy-1,5-dimethylbicyclo[3.3.0]octa-2,6-diene-2,4-exo,6,8-exo-tetracarboxylate, C(18)H(22)O(10), (II), tetramethyl cis,cis-3,7-dimethoxybicyclo[3.3.0]octa-2,6-diene-2,4-exo,6,8-exo-tetracarboxylate, C(18)H(22)O(10), (III), tetramethyl cis,cis-3,7-dimethoxy-1,5-dimethylbicyclo[3.3.0]octa-2,6-diene-2,4-exo,6,8-exo-tetracarboxylate, C(20)H(26)O(10), (IV), and tetramethyl cis,cis-3,7-diacetoxybicyclo[3.3.0]octa-2,6-diene-2,4-exo,6,8-exo-tetracarboxylate, C(20)H(22)O(12), (V). The bicyclic core is substituted in all cases at positions 2, 4, 6 and 8 with methoxycarbonyl groups and additionally at positions 3 and 7 with hydroxy [in (I) and (II)], methoxy [in (III) and (IV)] or acetoxy [in (V)] groups. The conformations of the methoxycarbonyl groups at positions 2 and 4 are exo for all five compounds. Each C(5) ring of the bicyclic skeleton is almost planar, but the rings are not coplanar, with dihedral angles of 54.93 (7), 69.85 (5), 64.07 (4), 80.74 (5) and 66.91 (7) degrees for (I)-(V), respectively, and the bicyclooctadiene system adopts a butterfly-like conformation. Strong intramolecular hydrogen bonds exist between the -OH and C=O groups in (I) and (II), with O...O distances of 2.660 (2) and 2.672 (2) A in (I), and 2.653 (2) and 2.635 (2) A in (II). The molecular packing is stabilized by weaker C-H...O(=C) interactions, leading to dimers in (I)-(III) and to a chain structure in (V). The structure series presented in this article shows how the geometry of the cycloocta-2,6-diene skeleton changes upon substitution in different positions and, consequently, how the packing is modified, although the intermolecular interactions are basically the same across the series.